Despite the growth and importance of Havana it must be remembered that at this time that city was still in a very primitive condition. The great majority of the houses were still built of cedar or pine boards with thatched roofs. They were so scattered, even in the heart of the city, that it was possible to have gardens and orchards around them. There were some houses of substantial masonry two or three stories in height. And the rich cedar, mahogany and other woods native to Cuba made it possible to finish and furnish them in very rich style. The houses of the rich were lighted with lamps of bronze or other metal, generally fed with olive oil, and those of the poor with candles made of suet. The streets were unlighted save by an occasional lantern at the entrance to some house. And they were so infested not only with stray dogs but with vagabonds and ruffians that it was unsafe for citizens to go abroad after dark without an armed guard. Social and domestic customs, which had at first been kept after those of Spain itself, by this time began to have an individuality suited to the circumstances and conditions of life on the Island. It was the custom to have the chief meal of the day at noon and a lighter supper quite late in the evening, probably between eight and ten o'clock.
It is interesting to record that during the administration of Maldonado occurred the first theatrical performance in the history of Cuba. This was on the night of St. John, in the year 1599, and the performance took place in honor of the Captain-General in the great hall of the military barracks. It is recorded that on assembling the audience was so noisy that it was impossible to begin the performance until threats had been made of serious physical punishment. Despite this vexatious incident the people were so delighted with the performance that when it came to an end they unanimously clamored for its repetition although by this time it was one o'clock in the morning.
The sugar industry was now rising to great importance, especially in the vicinity of Havana and thence toward Matanzas. The largest of all the sugar mills in the Island was that founded by Anton Recia at Guaicanama, now known as Regla. In 1588 a royal decree was issued bestowing upon the sugar mills of Cuba the same favor that was formerly granted to those of Hispaniola, namely, the exemption of the buildings, machinery, negro slaves and in fact all other property from seizure or attachment for debt. The sugar plantations were somewhat hampered at this time by lack of labor, and on that account the importation of negro slaves was encouraged and hundreds were brought in every year.
In fact, negro slavery was by this time fully established as the principal reliance of the industries of the island. It was recognized that Cuba was a land of inestimable wealth, particularly in agriculture. Stock raising was the chief industry, but sugar growing was rising in importance, while the production of honey and wax was also a widespread and highly lucrative occupation. Of all industries sugar growing was the most laborious and called, therefore, for the greatest number of slaves. Each mill required from eighty to a hundred workmen.
Strangely enough, while the royal government strove in some ways to encourage and stimulate the sugar industry, it persisted in hampering it, at any rate in Cuba, in the matter of slave labor. As far back as 1556 a decree fixed the maximum price at which slaves might be sold in the island at one hundred ducats, or about seventy pesos. Yet at the same time the price fixed for slaves in Venezuela was one hundred and ten ducats, and in Mexico one hundred and twenty ducats. The result was inevitable. Slaves were sent to Venezuela and Mexico rather than to Cuba; or the best were sent thither and the poorest to the island. This was only one of a number of eccentricities of government, which suggested a persistent and inexplicable tendency to discriminate against Cuba in favor of the other colonies.
Against such purblind policies the ablest administrators and the most enterprising planters and merchants struggled to little avail. It was a splendid achievement for the engineer Antonelli in 1586 to tap the Almendares River, west of Havana, with a system of canals and aqueducts, and thus bring an abundant supply of fresh water into Havana. In so doing he not merely provided the capital with one of the prime necessities of life, but he also made Havana the centre of the sugar industry. For it was along these artificial watercourses that the first sugar mills were erected and operated. But this availed little while there was persistent discrimination against Cuba to a degree that kept the island without a tithe of the labor which was needed for the development of its resources. We cannot, of course, approve the slave trade, or argue that it should have been followed to a greater extent than it was. But if it was to exist at all, and Spain was willing and indeed determined that it should, justice and economic reason required that it should exist as freely in Cuba as in the neighboring colonies.
CHAPTER XXIII
The character of the European nations whose navigators and explorers had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and had opened to the bewildered gaze of the Old World a vista of unlimited possibilities in the New, underwent a great change during the seventeenth century. Acclaimed as national achievements, adding new lustre to national glory, these discoveries at first only stimulated patriotism and became an incentive to national effort. But as Spain and Portugal which had given to the world those men with the large vision and the undaunted courage, awakened to the importance of their exploits and began to see them from the angles of political and economic advantages, the desire to restrict those advantages to their own use became so powerful, that consideration for the interests of other nations was ignored. The spirit of imperialistic expansion was roused and demanded no less than a monopoly of the traffic and trade of the world.
With this end in view the two countries adopted a protectionist policy and imposed restrictions upon mariners and merchants of other nations that in time became intolerable. The government of Spain forbade its colonists in Spanish America to receive European merchandise from any but Spanish ports, which in turn enabled Spanish exporters to demand unreasonable prices. This was resented by many colonists, and they were willing to deal with smugglers who sold this merchandise at a lower price or exchanged it for the produce of the colonies, especially for hides and sugar. The governors of Santo Domingo were among the first in the colonies to take steps against this trade. They fitted out small vessels, which they called Guardacostas, coastguards, and had them patrol all along the coast. If they succeeded in capturing the smugglers, they proceeded against them with little ceremony. They were either thrown overboard or hanged.
This summary process having stirred in the smugglers the spirit of vindictiveness, they organized for concerted action, determined to resist what they considered unwarranted severity and cruelty. They began to group into fleets, and openly invaded the coasts, burning, plundering, marauding and killing. They looked about for suitable places where to establish settlements of their own that could be used as bases of operation in the neighborhood. Hispaniola or Hayti, where the natives had been almost exterminated and which by misgovernment was nearly deserted, invited them. Herds of cattle and swine were running wild about the island and offered not only valuable provisions for themselves, but promised to become marketable commodities. Some French smugglers settled there, killed the cattle and swine, smoked the beef and salted the pork, and opened a remunerative trade with visiting sailors in these commodities as also in tallow and hides. The Indians of the island called smoked beef "boucan"; hence these traders were called boucaniers which was anglicized into buccaneers. In a similar way the English freebooter was by the French corrupted into flibustier and later came back to us as filibuster. At first the term boucanier was limited to the smugglers and traders in smoked beef living on land, while the flibustier was applied