CHAPTER XXIII

Tales of Bolivar's triumphs in South America were not slow to penetrate to the knowledge of the Cubans. Liberty, which had seemed only a dream, now began to take on the aspect of a possible reality. Men expressed their opinions and desires furtively in their own homes, to tried and trusted friends. They began to assemble and exchange views. No one dared to come out openly at first, and so propaganda was carried on through veiled articles, by word of mouth, by the secret clasp or sign of union. Under pretext of meeting for amusement and social pleasure clubs whose members were all friends of liberty began to be formed, about 1820. The Free Masons, whose principles were far from inimical to what now began to become the aim of all Cubans who loved their country, organized societies, which immediately became hot-beds of revolt, of the fiercest kind of protest against Spanish rule, and the rendezvous of those who planned to overthrow it.

Other clubs, all of them masking their real purpose under some pretext, sprang into existence like magic. The best known of them all was called the "Soles de Bolivar" in which the influence of Bolivar had bridged the waters which separate Cuba from South America, and was leading the Cubans, in the inception of their fight for liberty. What the members of these societies most longed for was that the renowned "Liberator" would come at the head of an army and overthrow the Spanish rule in Cuba; though this was not to be.

Now if the Spanish rule was politically weak and tottering at this time, the evidence of this fact was strongly repressed, and financially the country was flourishing. At the head of the financial department was the Count de Villanueva. He made many reformations in the methods of collecting taxes--to enable Spain more readily to lay her hands on her spoils. He changed the methods of keeping accounts, and of checking up the books of the public treasury. His influence at the Spanish court was greater than that of the Captain-General, and so he was able to have him deposed as President of the Consulado and himself appointed in his stead. He exercised a despotic control over the functions of that body, and made them subservient to the improvement and development of Cuba for the enrichment of Spain. He saw to it that everything that could be taxed paid its share into the public treasury. As agriculture increased, its products were more heavily taxed. The plight of the Cuban who desired to own property and get on, was similar to that of a pieceworker who, when he speeded up productions, found the piece work price cut to take care of any surplus. The more the Cuban produced, the more he was taxed, and his last state was about the same as his first; the only ones who profited were the officials in Spain. Now for the first time taxes were imposed without even consulting those taxed, to say nothing of obtaining their consent. Villanueva was the friend of the Captain-General and his co-conspirator against Cuba's happiness, in spite of the fact that he wrested from him certain honors. He was naturally most popular with the Spanish court, and was cordially hated by all loyal Cubans.

Yet Villanueva did do some things for the improvement of Havana. He had many roads in and near the city paved, and devices erected to clear the anchorage of the harbor of the infiltrations of mud, and to preserve the wharves. He had the waters of the Husille brought into the city by an excellent method. He established a regular mail packet system between Spain and Cuba, and it was under his administration that the Guines railroad was built. This road ran from Havana to Guines, a distance of forty-five miles, and was built under the direction of an American engineer, Mr. Cruger. It was the nucleus of a system which in 1848 comprised 285 miles of rails in operation, and 85 more in process of construction. These lines connected Havana with Guines, Batabano, Cardenas and Matanzas; Cardenas with Juacaro, Matanzas with Sabanilla and Colisco, Nuevitas with Puerto Principe, and Santiago de Cuba with the copper mines. They represented an investment of between five and six million dollars.

Villanueva, however, oppressed and robbed the people in order that he might make frequent and munificent remittances to the treasury in Spain. The more they gave, the more they were urged to give. Spain cared nothing for the manner in which the money which she demanded was accumulated, only that by fair means or foul it might be forthcoming. Villanueva established the Bank of St. Ferdinand, but for all the good it did Cuba at this time, it might have remained unestablished. Its capital was seized by the crown as fast as it accumulated, and it proved to be just a new method for the extortioners. Spain had no more unscrupulous agent than her chief of the finance department.

The victims were not quiescent, except in appearance. The rack keys were being too tightly turned. In the "Soles de Bolivar" and in other assemblies patriots were crying out for vengeance. In vain Vives tried to suppress the societies. Known members were arrested and thrown into prison, and meetings were forbidden; but the movement was like a conflagration which has gained start in many parts of a city. When stamped out in one place--when one society was destroyed--it only made its appearance in another. The principal headquarters were at Matanzas. Very carefully and in secret the leaders laid their plans for a widespread revolt, the date of which was set for August 16, 1823. But Vives had secret agents in the societies, and there were traitors as there frequently are in such movements. When the day of the revolt dawned the leaders were seized and imprisoned. There were many eminent Cubans among the patriots, the best known being the greatest of Cuban poets, José Maria Heredia. Perhaps some appreciation not so much of this man's courage as of his genius influenced the Captain-General. At any rate, instead of being condemned to death, he was sent into perpetual exile. A few of the members of the society learned of the betrayal before they could be taken and made their escape from the island.

Those who were conspiring for the liberation of Cuba were not cowed, however, but simply temporarily overcome. One of the first acts of Vives under the royal decree of May 25, 1825, was to use every means possible to suppress and to annihilate the secret societies, but he simply made them more wary. The desire for liberty which had sprung up in the breasts of so many Cuban patriots was destined never again to be extinguished, and the history of the island from this time down to the War of Independence, in the closing decade of the century, is that of one long struggle for separation from Spain--sometimes open, more frequently secret but always continuous.

When the uprising of 1823 failed so signally, a number of the refugees who escaped prosecution fled to Mexico and Colombia. There was a settlement of these people in Caracas. They turned to "The Liberator" for support, and soon the invasion of Cuba, by a force composed of Mexicans and Colombians, either under the personal leadership, or under the direction of Bolivar, was planned. The leaders of this movement also sought aid in the United States. Now the slaveholders of the South were at this time opposed to the separation of Cuba from Spain, because under the lead of Bolivar it would mean the doom of the slave trade, the abolition of slavery, and such an achievement in Cuba would be inimical to their own interests. So the attempt to procure assistance in the United States was really the cause of the failure of the proposed expedition. Spanish spies were quickly informed of the proposed plan, and such strenuous efforts were openly made to make such an attempt ineffective, that it was never made. Bolivar had all he could attend to in South America, and he was too intelligent a leader to attempt the impossible, and at the same time leave his plans for the liberation of South America to meet certain defeat in his absence.

But Spain did not easily overlook the conspiracy, and she seized the leaders in Cuba who were conspiring with those in Colombia and Mexico. Two young men of fine families, Don Francisco de Aguero Velasco and Don Bernabe Sanchez, were apprehended by the aides of the Captain-General, imprisoned and most cruelly treated, and when their spirit was not broken by torture and they refused to divulge the secrets of their leaders, they were condemned to die for treason, and paid the penalty of their patriotism with their lives.

Still the love of freedom grew and waxed stronger in Cuba. In 1828, a secret society known as El Aguila Negra (The Black Eagle) was inaugurated in Colombia and Mexico, by those patriots who were escaping the vengeance of Spain by remaining in exile. This movement was splendidly organized. It had branches, not only in Colombia and Mexico, but also in the United States, where recruiting offices were openly established, and in Cuba where its operations were secret. But the organizers of The Black Eagle could not make a move which Spanish spies did not report to their master, the Captain-General of Cuba. Every plan was known to him as soon as it was formulated. He made no secret of his determination to deal summarily with those who were plotting against the power of Spain, but he waited in hope that he might be able to seize the real brains of the expedition. Besides this, the declaration of Bolivar for the freedom of the slaves as one of the principles for which he was fighting, and the fact that he was so closely connected with these revolutionary movements in Cuba, excited at this time the fears and animosity not only of the slave owners in the United States, but also of the most selfish, greedy and powerful of this class--particularly those of Spanish birth and sympathies--in Cuba. Before the expedition could be actually started, the leaders were apprehended and a farce of a trial followed. The Captain-General was beginning to fear the new spirit which was abroad in the land. Perhaps he had discovered that cruelty and fierce opposition only fanned the flame. At any rate he commuted the sentence of death, and imprisoned the conspirators.

Since Mexico had conspired against the Spanish occupation of Cuba, General Vives retaliated by a military expedition against Mexico, in 1828. A force of three thousand and five hundred men was sent against Mexico--not a large army, but General Vives expected that large numbers of Mexicans would join his soldiers, once they set foot on Mexican soil. A landing was made at Tampico, in August, 1828. Instead of being received with acclamations by the people of Mexico, the movement met with the most strenuous opposition. The expedition was surrounded by the Mexican army, and its members were glad to surrender and to make terms with the Mexicans by which they were allowed to return to Havana. In March, 1829, the would-be conquerors of Mexico arrived in Havana with none of the honors with which it had been planned to crown the victors.

Vives, while a stern governor, did not actually play the part of a despot. He held his office until May 15, 1832, when he was succeeded by Don Mariana Ricafort, a tyrant of the most pronounced type. His rule left one continuous record of oppression and misgovernment. No better person to encourage in the hearts of thinking Cubans an eagerness to be rid of Spain could have been chosen, for he was thoroughly hated and despised. His rule continued two years, and then, in 1834, the reins of government were taken into the hands of General Don Miguel Tacon. The eastern department of the island was commanded at this time by General Lorenzo.

Tacon, one of the most famous of the nineteenth century Captains-General, was a man of small mind and great stubbornness, shortsighted, narrow and jealous. He was exceedingly vain, grasping for power, and a tyrant of the most pronounced type. He took many privileges from the wealthy inhabitants of the island, and he seized for himself the power, which had theretofore been a municipal function, of naming the under-commissaries of police in Havana.

Like all people of extremely arbitrary nature, Tacon was an arrant coward at heart. He was perpetually in terror of being assassinated, and upon the slightest pretext had anyone whom he considered dangerous to his rule thrown into prison. The life of no Cuban who happened to offend the Captain-General was safe at this time.

In 1836 there occurred in Spain the revolution of La Granja, when the progressive triumphed over the moderate party, and the Queen Regent was obliged to proclaim the old Constitution of 1812, granting Cuba representation in the Spanish Cortes, and to summon deputies from Cuba. The news of this triumph reached Santiago de Cuba before it did Havana, whereupon General Lorenzo, in command there, immediately proclaimed the Code of Cadiz, and ordered an election for deputies to the Cortes. He reestablished the constitutional ayuntamiento, declared the press free, reorganized the national militia and put his department on the same footing that it had been in 1823.

Tacon was furious when knowledge of this action reached him. He had no power to compel General Lorenzo to retract, but he summarily cut off all communications with his department and laid his plans to invade that territory, and by military force to restore his own absolute government and do away with representation for Cuba in the Spanish Cortes. Perhaps nothing that he could have done could have added more to his unpopularity. He was hissed in the streets, and plots were made against his life.

For himself, Tacon paid no attention to the royal mandate which announced the reestablishment of the Constitution of 1812 and foreshadowed orders for election of deputies to the Cortes. Under the royal decree of 1825, which was still in force, Tacon had power to set aside any instructions which came from Spain, if it seemed to him to the best interests of Cuba. He did not hesitate to take advantage of this authority, which gave him the same rights as a Spanish governor over a city in a state of siege, allowed him to suspend any public functionary no matter what his rank, and to banish any resident of the island who opposed him, without trial, and even without the formal preferring of accusations, as well as to suspend any law or regulation emanating from Spain, should he see fit.

Under Tacon's orders, a column of soldiers, picked from the Spanish army of occupation, and chosen--much against their will and inclination--from the rural and provincial militia and cavalry, was placed under the command of General Gascue, in the town of Guines. Meanwhile, Tacon's secret agents were carrying on an active propaganda among the citizens of Santiago de Cuba, and endeavoring to seduce public sentiment from Lorenzo's to Tacon's side. They did not hesitate to tell the most unblushing falsehoods, and to make the most dishonest promises to win the people over, and by such means attained some degree of success.

If Tacon had had a different sort of opponent the story would have been written along very different lines. A strong commander of the large forces at Santiago de Cuba could easily have compelled him to withdraw from his position, and could have assured for Cuba greater freedom, and this course might in the long run at least have postponed her further efforts for separation from Spain. But General Lorenzo though well-meaning was fatally weak. Instead of resisting Tacon's tyranny he left Cuba for Spain, in an effort to make sure of the support of the Spanish crown, leaving Tacon to follow his own will, and to wreak his vengeance on those who had opposed him. Tacon was of course delighted with the success of his strategy. He sent some of the officers of his companies to Santiago and established a military commission to try all the people of prominence who under General Lorenzo had opposed him. Moya, the commandant, was the presiding judge, and Miret, a lawyer and a tool of Tacon's, acted as advocate. No greater travesty of justice has ever been staged than the proceedings of this precious body.

Now all the Creoles of wealth, education and family had welcomed the royal decree, and hastened to obey the commands of General Lorenzo and to take oath to uphold a constitution which was so beneficial to their interest. Their names were known to Tacon, and he seized not only such people, but anyone of whom he had the slightest suspicion. Men of the highest rank, or the best reputation for loyalty and honesty, of the finest education and standing, were among the number who were summoned before Tacon's tribunal. Even the church was not exempt, and several clergymen, with liberal leanings, and of known revolutionary sentiments, were arrested and imprisoned. This was an excellent time for Tacon to find a pretext to separate the sheep from the goats, and to put those who seemed likely to oppose him where he thought they belonged. Many of these people were confined in dungeons which were as barbarous as those of the middle ages, and were left there until they died of disease or of starvation. They were cut off from communications with their families and friends, and in darkness and filth suffered until death relieved them. A few considered themselves fortunate to get off with sentences of banishment, and those who had warning were glad to escape to another country. Families were separated and homes were broken up. Tacon was very thorough in his methods of putting down what he considered a menace to his government. Even the soldiers under General Lorenzo's command were made his victims. They had been guilty of no offence save that of obeying their superior officer, but this made no difference to Tacon. He decided to make an example of them. Over five hundred of them, with ball and chain dragging, were condemned to work on the streets of Havana like convicts.

The deputies to the Cortes whom Lorenzo had chosen, or who had been chosen under his rule, were among those who escaped from the island. They made their way to Spain, and, hoping that the Spanish crown would recognize the regularity of their election, and the irregularity of Tacon's action, presented their credentials to the Cortes. They were referred to a special committee composed of Spaniards whose only interest in Cuba was in what might be extracted from her, and who had no sympathy with her struggles or concern for her welfare or the good of her people. What few ideas they had of the best way to govern Cuba and make her pay the highest returns to Spain were derived from such intellects as those possessed by men of Tacon's ilk, and they were stoutly ranged on Tacon's side of the controversy. The deputies were refused seats in the Cortes, and it was decided that the Constitution of 1812 did not apply to Cuba. Cuba was thus placed under the despotic rule of the Captains-General, who were given absolute power, even precedence, over the will of the Spanish Cortes. The decree of the Cortes on this matter was framed in the following language:

"The Cortes, using the power which is conceded to them by the Constitution, have decreed: Not being in a position to apply the Constitution which has been adopted for the peninsula and adjacent to the ultramarine provinces of America and Asia, these shall be ruled and administered by special laws appropriate to their respective situations and circumstances, and proper to cause their happiness. Consequently, the Deputies for the designated provinces are not to take their seats in the present Cortes."

Tacon was exultant over this strengthening of his hand, and he began a regime even more cruel than his previous record. His agents were constantly busy stirring up strife and jealousy between the Spanish residents of the island and the native Cubans. He dominated the civil courts with his military officers, and justice became a mere chimera of fancy. In order to keep the police in line, he insisted that a certain number of arrests must be made within a given period. When there were not enough real offenders to make up the quota, the police naturally wreaked any little personal animosities which they might have against private citizens; and it has even been said that frequently they were paid by certain revengeful citizens who held grudges to prefer charges against men who were absolutely innocent of any offence.

Of course societies, whether political or social, came under the governmental ban. Citizens were not encouraged to assemble in groups for any purpose, and they feared to do so openly, lest the entire group might be apprehended and tried on some trumped up charge. All associations for education or personal betterment were discouraged, because if people came to know too much, they were harder to handle and more apt to revolt. Besides this, any society or institution which did not depend on the favor of the Captain-General might find means of denouncing his rule, and one could never tell how royal favor might be swayed. Tacon well knew it to be a very uncertain quantity, and meant to keep the wind blowing in his quarter, if possible.

In connection with his management of the police force, the whole attitude of justice was changed. No person was presumed innocent until his guilt was proved, but on the contrary his guilt was presumed unless he could beyond the shadow of a doubt prove his innocence; and if he had been unfortunate enough to incur the displeasure of one of the legion of sycophants from the court of Spain who hung around the palace of the Captain-General, seeking their own aggrandizement, his chances of having an opportunity to prove himself innocent were very small. Tacon encouraged rather than discouraged his subordinates in acts of injustice, and did not care to what lengths they went if they kept the people quiet. He roared at his officers, and demanded that they be vigilant against his enemies, and they were thoroughly cowed by him. To satisfy him, they invented accusations and thrust just men into prison, or had them condemned to death. A curious result of this regime, and one which shows how some good will often work out of the basest evils, was that thieves and banditti were much less active than under any other Captain-General. The long arm of Tacon reached out to subdue them, to fall upon the guilty as well as the innocent.

Tacon is said to have stated his own position in these words: "I am here, not to promote the interests of the people of Cuba, but to serve my master, the king." The press was muzzled, and the local ayuntamientos were deprived of their rights, and became merely the means for the collection and distribution of the funds of the municipalities. The prisons were overcrowded with Tacon's victims, and it became necessary to lodge some of the political prisoners in the dungeons of castles. Nearly 600 people, against whom there was no formal accusation, and about whom no treason could be proved, were lodged in cells and dungeons. No private citizen was safe, and no one had any personal liberty.

In spite of the lack of a free press, pamphlets denouncing the rule of Tacon were constantly being written, printed and circulated. One, entitled "_Cuba y su Gobierno,_" contained the following assertions:

"With the political passions of Spaniards and Cubans excited; the island reduced from an integral part of the monarchy to the conditions of a colony, and with no other political code than the royal order, conferring unlimited power upon the chief authority; the country bowed down under the weighty tyranny of military commissions established in the capitals of the eastern and western departments; with the prisons filled with distinguished patriots; deprived of representation in the Cortes; the ayuntamientos prohibited the right of petition; the press forbidden to enunciate the state of public opinions; closed the administration of General Don Miguel Tacon in the island of Cuba, the most calamitous, beyond a question, that this country has suffered since its discovery by the Spaniards."

The party in Cuba which was struggling against her oppression decided that since they dared not give expression of their views in the local press, they would establish organs outside their distressed country. Two papers were accordingly issued, one at Paris, called _El Correo de Ultramar_, and one at Madrid called _El Observador_. These were both edited by able Cubans who were in exile. Later, in 1848, _La Verdad_, a paper devoted to Cuban interests, was started in New York and the copies given free distribution.

Tacon, like other despots, sought to cover his misdeeds by public works, with which he tried to placate those possible insurgents whom he had not imprisoned, and to deceive the Spanish government; for cruel and arbitrary as had been the Spanish attitude toward her colonies, it is doubtful whether the Spanish Cortes, had all the facts been known, would have countenanced some of the brutalities of which Tacon was guilty. There is a curious irony, a sort of paradox, about one of the improvements which Tacon made on the island. As we have seen, the prisons had never before been so full, and there had never before been such a demand for places to incarcerate political offenders. Tacon consequently caused a prison to be built, which has ever since been pointed to as a palliation of some of his misdeeds. It is situated near the gate of La Punta, and not far distant from the sea coast. It is well ventilated and airy, and open to the sea breezes. One point urged in its favor was that "its unfortunate inmates were protected from those pestilential fevers rising from crowded and ill-ventilated rooms." In other words, they were torn from squalor to well ventilated imprisonment. This would have been all very nice, were it not for the fact that numbers of the prisoners were from the best homes on the island, and had no need of a comfortable boarding house by the sea, watched over by an inhuman jailor. The prison had a capacity of five thousand prisoners, and very shortly after its erection it sheltered one thousand. It was built by the labor of convicts, and poor, unhappy political prisoners, and partly with funds which Tacon extracted from some of the officers who served under his predecessors, claiming that such funds had been by them unlawfully appropriated to their own use.

To give opportunities for "graft" to his followers, and work to their hangers-on, Tacon constructed a wall, high, level and massive, and for what purpose only he knew, right through the widest avenue of Havana. The Cubans were taxed to pay for the work, and subsequently were retaxed to pay for its removal. Tacon also established a public meat and fish market, for which he won popular approbation--outside of Cuba. It was in fact much to the detriment of the public and the public revenue, and greatly to his own gain and that of his friends. Even the contract for this market was not honestly let, but was given to the highest bidder for Tacon's enrichment, while honest bidders were ignored. The grant was obtained, whereupon the contractors came into their own, and commenced extorting large and valuable fees to which they were not entitled. Finally the matter became such a public scandal that even Tacon could not avert its being investigated, but when this investigation was completed, the record was taken possession of by Tacon, and mysteriously never again was discovered. The scandal of Tacon's administration at last became too great even for the Spanish court, which was supposed to be inclined to stand for anything, and the voice of Don Juan Montalvo y Castillo was raised in the Spanish Cortes in expostulation. But Tacon wrote artful reports, dodged the real issues, and cheerfully lied, and his utterances--perhaps better fitting the temper of the Cortes--found credence and his rule was continued.

Tacon caused the Governor's palace to be rebuilt, at great profit to himself and his favorites in the way of perquisites and bribes; he caused a military road to be constructed; and he had a spacious theatre erected, cynically saying, that "it would keep the people amused, and keep their minds off of matters which did not concern them." He also caused a large parade ground to be opened just outside the city. But in none of his improvements was he free from suspicion of having enriched his own purse, and having in some manner pulled the wool over the sadly strained eyes of the Cuban patriots.

A story which reads like a romance is told of Tacon's institution of the fish market. In those days pirates infested the waters around Cuba, and indeed were a menace to American and French vessels, as we have seen. The most daring pirate and smuggler of them all was said to be a man named Marti, of whom many exciting tales are related. He was a bold leader of desperadoes, and since the Isle of Pines was where his band most frequently had their headquarters, he was known as the "King of the Isle of Pines." Now Tacon was eager to suppress smuggling and piracy, probably because they interfered with his own plans. The Spanish ships of war lay in the harbors of Cuba at anchor, while the officers indulged in dancing on board with Cuban ladies, or took long period of leave on shore. This did not please Tacon, and he accordingly issued commands that they suppress the smugglers at all costs. But the smugglers carried on their operations from small coves and inlets, in little crafts which did not draw much water, and the clumsy and half-hearted efforts of the Spanish sailors to apprehend them filled their leaders with mirth. There are many tales of the impudent daring with which these outlaws operated under the very noses of those who were sent out to capture them.

At last Tacon, who had an abounding belief that every man had his price, and perhaps had heard enough of the character of the men he was hunting to gauge it correctly, offered a reward for anyone who would desert and inform the government of the pirates. A much larger and more tempting sum was offered for the delivery of Marti, dead or alive. These offers were posted throughout the country.

For some time nothing happened, and then one dark night, when it was raining copiously, a man evaded the sentinels before the main entrance to the governor's palace in Havana. He stole through the entrance, and hid himself among the pillars in the inner court. Next this man silently crept up the staircase to the governor's apartments. Here he met a guard, but he saluted, and passed on with such nonchalance that he was not challenged, and entering the reception room of the governor, found himself in the semi-royal presence. Tacon was alone, busily writing. He promptly inquired who his visitor might be, and was informed that he was one who had valuable information for the Captain-General.

"I am the Captain-General," said Tacon.

"Your excellency is desirous of apprehending the pirates who infest the coasts of the island?"

"You must have been reading the proclamations," jocosely suggested Tacon.

"And you wish to take Marti, dead or alive?"

Tacon signified that such was his purpose. His strange visitor then exacted the Captain-General's promise that he would be granted a free pardon in return for the valuable information which he was about to divulge. When this promise was given he said:

"I will lead you to the strongholds of the smugglers."

"You?" cried Tacon. "Who are you?"

"I am Marti!" was the reply.

Marti, who so calmly and unscrupulously betrayed his followers, was of course a welcome visitor to the Captain-General, and one worthy of his warmest co-operation and friendship. He was placed under surveillance, and was obliged to remain in the palace for the night, but the Captain-General refrained from telling anyone his identity. On the next day he acted as pilot for one of the Captain-General's boats, and after the course of several weeks he had exposed every hiding place of his men. The amount of money and property thus secured and appropriated by the Captain-General cannot be estimated, but it was very great. A great deal of it never found its way into the treasury. Marti was a scoundrel so much to his liking that the Captain-General decided not only to give him a free pardon, but an order on the treasury for a large sum of money. However, Marti had his own ideas of what he desired. In place of the money he chose the absolute right to fish the waters surrounding Havana, to the exclusion of all fishermen who were not in his employ. He had in his wild career marked for his own all the best fishing grounds in the harbor. This concession granted, there must naturally be found a market for his fish, and thus the fish market project was born. Then fishing made Marti so wealthy that he now had time for more elegant occupations, and turned his mind to theatricals. He is said to have obtained some sort of monopoly from the government over theatrical performances in the island, and then the public theatre idea was formed.

Tacon had as many press agents as an opera singer, albeit they had no methods of getting their material into public print and disseminated it by word of mouth. His agents told many stories of him to illustrate his love of justice, his wonderful generosity, and his many other admirable traits, for which he was in reality only negatively to be celebrated. The one which follows is merely illustrative of the others.

In the first year of his rule there was a young Creole girl, of surpassing beauty and modesty, of the name of Miralda Estalez. She was an orphan of seventeen, and kept a cigar store, which her beauty and grace made very popular with the young men of Havana. Miralda, like all proper heroines of fiction or fairy stories, was good as well as beautiful, and although many of the young bloods sighed for her, her glance fell with favor only on a handsome but, of course, poor and deserving young man, of the name of Pedro Mantenez. Pedro was a boatman, which is a most romantic and fitting occupation for an impoverished but righteous hero. He was more than this. By his wit and sagacity--which as we have seen failed to line his coffers, but if they had done so he would have been out of drawing in this affecting picture, since he would no longer have been poor but deserving--he was a leader among the other boatmen and beloved by all. The records of his noble and self-sacrificing deeds would have filled a volume as large as an unabridged dictionary. Miralda loved Pedro, and Pedro loved Miralda, and all was going as merry as a marriage bell, when entered the villain, a famous roué of the name of Count Almonte, who liked Miralda's cigars and cast melting glances at Miralda herself, but all in vain, because, as we have said, Miralda was good as well as beautiful. Finding that he would have to do something more substantial than make eyes, the worthy count offered Miralda a costly present which so affected her that she fainted, not with joy, but with horror. Then she ordered the count from her shop, but he refused to go and continued to hang around and buy her wares. Next the fine count offered her money and lands and rich clothes and what not, but the pure-minded young girl righteously spurned his offer. Acting quite in character the count then decided to kidnap her. His plans were ingenious, but in order to gain popularity for Tacon it was necessary that not far from this point he should get into the story.

One afternoon, just at twilight, that fine hour for abduction, a lieutenant--probably in Tacon's pay--stepped into the store and demanded that Miralda go with him, by order of the Captain-General; which does look like the cloven hoof in the velvet glove, or something of the sort. But instead of taking Miralda to the Captain-General she was conveyed to the count's country estates, where she was kept a prisoner, although of course not harmed--in fiction the villain never harms the heroine before the hero arrives even if he is a bit late at the appointment. Pedro, by that wit and sagacity which had made him a master boatman, discovered the count's treachery. He disguised himself as a friar and went to the count's gate every day and slipped notes through the cracks to Miralda, thus cheering her exceedingly. Then entered the most high excellency, the Captain-General, that defender of those who loved liberty in Cuba, that builder of prisons and master genius in filling them, that despoiler of rich and poor alike, and thus the man most likely to help defenseless virtue. Pedro's excess of wit and sagacity led him straight to the spotless Captain-General. After trying three times to get an audience, for governing the island and putting down rebellions kept Tacon reasonably busy, Pedro succeeded in getting into the presence of the lord of Cuba. When he had told his story, and sworn to his honorable intentions toward his fiancee, Tacon sent his soldiers to the count's estate to bring him and Miralda into the sacred presence. When the Captain-General had demanded to know, and the count had assured him, that Miralda was "as pure as when she came beneath my roof," Tacon immediately produced a priest and married Miralda to the count, much to the astonishment and chagrin of the faithful Pedro. But Tacon the Just was not through. He was ever on the side of the oppressed, when his own interests leaned that way. The count was ordered to return to his own plantation, without his bride. While on the way he was shot in the back, after Tacon's most pleasant manner and by his orders. In one record it is hinted that his estates were pleasant picking for Tacon, but the story which is most current leaves out that interesting detail. Tacon's version is that he gave the count's estate to the widow; and at any rate Pedro and Miralda were married and lived happily ever afterward, and Tacon gave them his blessing with the high-sounding pronouncement: "No man nor woman on this island is so humble but that they may claim the justice of Tacon."

Tacon's rule, one of the worst that the long-suffering Cubans had to endure, finally came to an end, on April 16, 1838, when he was succeeded by Don Joaquin de Espeleta. The latter had been born in Cuba, and it is a mystery why he was ever appointed, for Spain was not wont to accord honors to Cubans, or to confer the high rank of Captain-General on one who might naturally be expected to have Cuban sympathies. He had been for some time connected with the government in a subordinate capacity, being inspector-general of the troops, and second cabo-subalterno. From all accounts Espeleta was an excellent governor, and must have afforded the harassed Cubans a much needed breathing spell after the misrule of Tacon. But he was not long allowed to rule Cuba. Spain began to suspect that the Cubans were being treated too well, and that trouble might follow. Indeed, Espeleta was reported to be conciliating the people, and holding out hopes of great reforms. This in itself seemed to justify his removal, and so, in 1840, he was succeeded by the Prince de Aglona.

During this administration the Royal Pretorial Audience, a high court of appeal to which all civil cases might be taken, was established. If this had been kept free from deleterious influences, it would have been a most beneficial thing for the oppressed Cubans, but the royal favorites dominated it, as they did pretty much everything else.