CHAPTER XXI.

War with Great Britain.

EFORE the Governor could assemble the militia of the Island

BE

under arms, he thought it necessary to declare war by procla mation against Great Britain. When his whole force was at length assembled, it was found in gross numbers greatly to exceed that of the invaders. It consisted of nine squadrons of cavalry, including in all 810 men; the regiment of the Havana, 700; two battalions of the regiment de Espana, 1400; two battalions of the regiment de Aragon, 1400; three companies of artillery, 300; seamen and marines of the squadron, 9000; militia and people of color, 14,000-making a grand total of 27,610.

The greater part of the Spanish force was stationed in the town of Guanabacao, on the side of the bay opposite to the Havana, between the points where the invading forces had landed, in order to prevent them from turning the head of the harbor and attacking the city by land. The British force was divided into five brigades, amounting, with detachments from Jamaica and North America, to a total of 14,041 land forces. At daybreak, on the 7th, the troops were already on board the boats arranged in three divisions-the centre commanded by the Honorable Augustus Hervey; the right wing by Captains Barton and Drake; and the left, by Captains Arbuthnot and Jekyl.

The first brigade was also the first to land; and as soon as the troops had formed on the beach, Lord Albemarle took the command, and marched in the direction of the city, which he did without further molestation as soon as the Cogimar batteries had beer silenced. His Excellency established his headquarters in Cogimar for the night; the troops were served with rations under arms, and Reveral pickets were advanced to the eminences overlooking the

Havana. After a succession of attacks on the part of Lord Albemarle, and a continued bombardment of the castle, the Morro surrendered on the 30th of July, and the town itself on the 14th of August, succeeding.

The spoils seized by the captors were of great value, and the distribution was a subject of much discontent; and it must be admitted that the partition, which gave three or four pounds to a soldier or a sailor, whose life was equally exposed with that of his superiors, and 100,000l. to an admiral or a commander-in-chief, was far from being impartial.

Arrival of Troops.

The peace having been concluded in 1763, the Conde de Ricla. arrived at the Havana on the 30th of June, bringing the powers conferred by the treaty for the restoration of the British conquests in the Island of Cuba, and accompanied by General O'Reilly, with four ships of the line, a number of transports, and 2000 men for the supply of the garrison. On their arrival they were received by the English with every demonstration of respect. On the 7th of July the keys of the city were formally delivered up to the Conde de Ricla, on whom the government had been conferred, and the English garrison was embarked on its return to Europe.

The restoration of the Island to the Spaniards is regarded by the native writers as the true era from whence its aggrandizement and prosperity are to be dated. It was during the administration of the first governor that the new fortresses of San Carlos and Atares were erected, and the enlargement and rebuilding of the Morro and the Cabañas were begun. The old hospitals were placed on a better footing, and new ones were built. The court of accounts, and the whole department of finance, received a fresh impulse and a distinct form; and an intendant was named, who, among other arrangements, for the first time established the aduana, and created a custom-house revenue, the duties having been first levied on the 15th of October, 1764.

The Conde de O'Reilly, as inspector-general of the army, succeeded in organizing and placing on a respectable footing the regular troops,

as well as the railitia of the Island. The city of the Havana having been divided into districts, the streets named, and the houses numbered, the truth came to be known, that the capital contained materials for the formation of a battalion of disciplined white militia. Beginning with the formation of a single company, the governor appointed lieutenants, sergeants, and corporals from the regular troops of the garrison, and, after a personal inspection, he followed the same course with the other companies.

New Battalions are Formed.

Adopting this principle in the other towns of the Island, he soon succeeded in realizing his ideas, and creating a considerable force on which the government had every reason to rely. When the two white battalions of the Havana and Guanabacoa were completed, it was still found that, with the addition of the stationary regiment of regulars and the other troops of the garrison, there would not be a sufficient force for the defence of the capital, so that the idea of forming two other battalions presented itself, the one of blacks, the other of people of color, and was immediately carried into effect.

Don Diego Manrique assumed the supreme command in 1765, but died within a few months after his arrival. He was succeeded in 1766 by Don Antonio Maria Bucarelli, who prosecuted with energy the construction of the fortifications begun by the Conde de Ricla. Bucarely paid great attention to the due administration of justice, and was distinguished by the affability of his manners, the facility he afforded of access to his person, and the readiness with which he heard and redressed the grievances of the people; making it a boast that he had succeeded in adjusting differences and compromising law suits which had been pending for forty years.

When afterward appointed viceroy of New Spain, the minister for the department of the Indies announced to him, by command of the king, as an unexampled occurrence, that during the whole period of his administration not a single complaint against him had reached the court of Madrid. Another of his merits with the people was the gentleness and address with which he effected the expulsion of the

Jesuits, who had come to the Island with Don Pedro Agustin Morel, and had acquired there large possessions. The church attached to their seminary is that which is now the cathedral of the Havana.

On the promotion of Bucarelli in 1771, the Marques de la Torre was named his successor, and became one of the most popular captains-general who have ever administered the government. He was replaced in 1777 by Don Diego Jose Navarro, who introduced great improvements in the administration of justice, and the police of the tribunals, and in regulating the duties and functions of the abogados, escribanos, procuradores, tasadores, and other officers and dependents of the courts of law, in which the greatest abuses had previously and have since prevailed.

Attempt to Recover the Floridas.

The base and deteriorated coin, which had been for some time in circulation, was also called in and abolished in the time of Navarro. In the course of the war which had again broken out between England and Spain, an expedition was prepared at the Havana for the recovery of the Floridas, which produced the surrender of Pensacola, and the submission of the garrison. This gave rise to a belief that the English would make reprisals on Cuba or Porto Rico, and led to the dispatch of reinforcements on a large scale to the garrison of the Havana.

The peace of 1783 soon followed, on which Lord Rodney prepared to return to England; and taking the Havana in his way, Prince William Henry, afterward William IV., having obtained leave from the admiral to go on shore, was so delighted with the city and the entertainments that were offered him, that he remained there three days, and did not return, if we may believe the Spanish writers, until Lord Rodney sent to his royal highness to say, that if he did not reembark immediately, the squadron would set sail, and leave him behind. The Spanish general of marines, Solano, is said to have given the prince a breakfast which cost him $4000.

During the years which immediately succeeded the peace there appear to have been other changes in the colonial government besides

those already noticed, beginning with Don Luis Gonzaga, followed by the Conde de Galves, Don Bernardo Troncoso, Don Jose Espeleta, and Don Domingo Ceballo. In the time of this first Espeleta there was again a great outcry as to the number of lawyers in the colony, and particularly at the Havana, where there were already no less than eighty-five abogados, with an equally liberal proportion of the inferior classes of the profession.

Steps were taken to prevent their increase, and a regulation was enforced on the 19th of November, 1784, prohibiting the admission of candidates and the immigration of professors of jurisprudence from the other colonies; and no lawyer who had studied his profession in Spain was to be allowed to practice it in the courts of the Island until six years at least after he had been called to the bar in the Peninsula.

Brilliant Epoch in Cuba's History.

Don Luis de las Casas arrived as captain-general in 1790, and the period of his administration is represented by all Spanish writers as a brilliant epoch in the history of the Island. To him it is indebted for the institution of the Sociedad Patriotica, which has ever since done so much to stimulate the activity and promote the improvement of education, agriculture, and trade, as well as literature, science, and the fine arts, combined with large and liberal views of public policy. To Las Casas, also, is the Island indebted for the establishment of the Casa de Beneficencia, having been begun by a voluntary subscription amounting to $36,000. The female department was at first a separate institution, situated in the extra-mural portion of the city, but was added to the other on the completion of the buildings in 1794.

In place of a monument to Las Casas, which he undoubtedly deserved as much as any of his predecessors, an inscription has been conspicuously engraved in the common hall of the school for boys, declaring that on its erection it had been expressly dedicated to the memory of the founder of the institution; reminding the young pupils that he had not only been the founder of the Casa de Beneficencia, but of the first public library, and the first newspaper which