THE number and the characteristics of the people of Cuba are matters of doubt. If not of doubt exactly, at least there seem to be many discrepancies in relation to the numerical side of the problem, and great variation in opinion as to the qualities and peculiarities of the several classes of inhabitants which constitute the people of the Island. Before attempting to discuss the traits of the people, it may be advisable to ascertain, as far as practicable, the component parts of the population, and for that purpose recourse must be had to such statistical data as may be found available. The census report of Cuba can be obtained, but it is not issued, like our own, in book form, or even as printed reports. The results, moreover, are not worked out with any degree of detail as to age, sex, race, marital condition, occupation, and such other data as make an analysis of the population of the United States a comparatively easy task. The first census of Cuba was taken as far back as 1774, and since then the population has been enumerated at various periods, apparently when it suited the convenience or desire of the authorities at Madrid. The last count of the people was in December, 1897, but the returns from this enumeration have not been tabulated. The authorities admit they are imperfect in the four provinces of Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas, and Santa Clara, and that they lack entirely the population of Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba. It may, therefore, be expedient that this work should be abandoned and that the United States authorities should take a complete and satisfactory census of the Island in December (for it cannot be taken in the month of June), 1899, or December, 1900, either of which dates will be near enough to the date of our own Twelfth Census, which will be June 1, 1900—the earlier date will probably be better for Cuba and nearer our own census. Such an enumeration should elicit information in relation to occupations and such social topics as will aid in constructing a suitable government for the people of Cuba. The method of taking the Cuban census has been crude and the returns not very reliable. The organisation for the work has always been made in Spain and delegated to a Central Board in Cuba, which board is presided over by a Cabinet Minister—the last by Mr. Montoro, Secretary of State. The Secretary to this Board is the Director of Census. The schedules are then forwarded to the municipalities, who thus control their own enumerations. Fortunately for Cuba, there are no “boom towns,” so the returns are not unduly padded. The schedules for the rural districts are handled from the capital of the province. When the schedules are filled, they are sent to Havana, where the work of tabulation is performed. The completed work is sent to Spain for approval and promulgation. The method seems roundabout and cumbersome and must result in a large percentage of errors. The official who had charge of the last census admitted it was not exact—excepting possibly for some places where the municipal authorities took pride in the work. This was the case in Matanzas, where a census was taken in 1893, which seems on the face to be careful statistical work. A study of the census columns of unfortunate Cuba reveals the story of that Island in unmistakable terms. (See table on page 92.)

Disease and war have performed their fatal work and from time to time decimated the inhabitants. The cheerful side of the picture is the constant increase of population from 1852 to 1867. These few years were called the Golden Age of Cuba. The cholera visited Cuba at the end of the year 1868, and the Ten Years’ War began October 10, 1868, at which time many Cubans emigrated. This will explain the decrease of the year 1869. From 1870 to 1877 Spanish soldiers poured into the country, and not less than 200,000 Spaniards were sent there to crush the insurrection of 1868 to 1878 (Ten Years’ War).

A COUNTRY VILLA.
A COUNTRY VILLA.

Then came the last war, which has been even more disastrous, and many competent authorities put the loss by disease, starvation, and slain at 400,000. It is impossible to verify these figures until we shall have an accurate enumeration of the population, so it must remain guesswork until then. Whatever the result of the next census may show, the fact remains apparent that the population of Cuba, by reason of its misfortunes, is far behind the natural increment; that is, the growth by excess of births over deaths. This is shown by the following table, giving the estimated population of the Island of Cuba from 1774 to 1894, by decades, taking the average rate of increase of the native population in the United States by census decades:

In the opening chapter of this volume the point was made that Cuba, had it been permitted to remain in peace and enjoy its advantages, should have had a population ranging from 4,500,000 to 5,000,000. That this statement is borne out may be noted in the subjoined table, which gives the estimated population of the Island of Cuba from 1774 to 1894, taking the average rate of increase of the total population in the United States, by census decades:

The rate of growth of the Western Hemisphere, had Cuba been allowed to enjoy her natural advantages, would have found her at the close of 1900 with close upon 5,000,000 population and a country as flourishing as that pictured in the early part of this volume.

The population of the Island of Cuba, as enumerated on the 31st of December, 1887, was 1,631,687. This population was scattered over an area of about 122,606 square kilometres. These figures give an average density of population of 13.31 inhabitants to the square kilometre, the maximum of which appeared to be in the province of Havana (52.49), and the minimum in the province of Puerto Principe (2.10).

Distributed as white population and coloured people, the latter comprising negroes and half-breeds and Asiatics, the proportions were as follows:

It will be observed that the number of whites is greatest in the province of Havana, but the highest percentage of whites is found in the province of Puerto Principe (80.52). The province of Matanzas shows the greatest number of the coloured race, which is explained by the fact that slavery prevailed more extensively in that province than elsewhere. The proportion of males and females was as follows:

Notice that in each province, males are in excess of females. The immigration of women into Cuba has always been small. The proportion of males and females of the white and coloured races is as follows:

Notice that the proportion of males is larger in the white race than in the coloured. The enumeration of the population of Cuba in 1877 resulted as follows:

The increase in population from 1877 to 1887 was 110,003 individuals, or 7.23 per cent. The number of whites increased 70,454; the number of coloured people increased 39,549. Asiatics in this census, numbering 43,811, were included with the whites.

CUBAN “GUARACHERO” (MINSTREL).
CUBAN “GUARACHERO” (MINSTREL).

There are four classes of Cuban residents: the whites, the coloured, the blacks, and the Chinese.

The whites comprise native Cubans, Spaniards, and foreigners; a certain proportion in the interior being Canary Islanders, who are fitted by constitution, habits, and tastes for farm work.

The native Cuban is usually bright, and is gifted particularly with a remarkable memory. Children are very precocious, and, when given educational advantages, they develop into men of no mean ability. In addition to the intelligent Cubans residing in the Island, whose reputation in different branches of learning extends abroad, there are many who have attained honourable distinction in foreign countries, in competition with others whose advantages were conspicuously greater. Dr. Albarran, the well-known Paris physician, and Albertini, the violinist, are two of the many Cubans who have struggled and succeeded in Europe by dint of their individual exertions and natural talents. In America, a most distinguished professor of civil engineering, two leading civil engineers in the navy, and the most eminent authority on yellow fever in the country are native Cubans.

Havana is the only city in Cuba where any instruction is obtainable, and it is noticeable there that even the boys of the poorer classes are anxious to follow the university courses after leaving school.

In former days the sons of wealthy Cubans led the typical life of gentlemen of leisure. It was customary among them to take a profession, if that could be accomplished with little or no exertion. The remainder of their lives was usually spent in travelling through Europe. The present generation, however, is very different. It is composed of the sons of men who have been on the verge of bankruptcy for many years, owing to their thoughtless extravagance. They have had to work for their living from the moment they have left college, and, owing to the increasing poverty of the Island, they have never been able to reconstruct the fortunes ill spent by their forbears. The consequence is that one finds in Cuba the younger generation to be, as a class, vastly superior to the older men in principles, education, and working capacity.

The Cuban is more analytical than inventive. His mind easily grasps subjects on which he has received very little information; but he is decidedly lacking in inventive and constructive power.

The Cuban mother is very affectionate, but her maternal fondness often leads her into indulgence of the many failings of childhood, that, in later life, are impossible to overcome. Prevarication and pilfering are no uncommon failings of child-life in Cuba. Despite these weaknesses, children are so generous that their parents find it hard to prevent them from sharing their pocket-money with their young friends. Their politeness and affability are striking.

Cuban hospitality is proverbial. In the old and prosperous days of wealth it was a common thing for whole families to constitute themselves guests at the country-house of some friendly sugar-planter, and spend Christmas or Holy Week there without having given the host a word of warning. The planter, far from resenting this proceeding, invariably provided entertainment for his self-invited guests in the shape of riding parties, picnics, and dancing, considering himself highly honoured by the unforeseen advent of his friends. Like most Southerners, the Cubans are musically inclined. They dance well, and prolonged dancing parties are a favourite form of amusement.

There was an old Spanish law, in force up to some years ago, which entitled all suitors in marriage, whose proposals had been opposed, to demand that the lady’s parents state before the courts the reasons of their objections. There are interesting cases recorded of proud young Cubans who, animated by a high sense of honour, have availed themselves of this harsh expedient, in preference to breaking their vows to their lady-loves. The opposition in most cases was due to the fact that the father of the young lady was Spanish and the suitor Cuban. There is an instance of a man prominent in Havana circles who, taking advantage of this privilege, married a lady, and refused to accept his wife’s patrimony, and the father-in-law brought suit to compel him to do so. It was only after many years, when the allowance, handed periodically to the court, had accumulated to a considerable sum, that a compromise was reached and a reconciliation took place between the father and the married couple.

Cubans are very much attached to family life. Deep affection usually exists among the members of families, and they follow each other’s affairs with great interest, even after the families break up.

In Cuban houses, the first morning meal, or “coffee” as it is called, consists of coffee and rolls; breakfast then follows at ten or eleven o’clock, consisting, usually, of fried eggs, hash, fried plantains, sweet potatoes, meat, and cafÉ au lait. Dinner takes place at six or seven o’clock. Occasionally fruit is served at two or three o’clock. Visits are exchanged in the evening; but ladies follow the European custom of calling in the afternoon. Most families have an “at home” one evening every week to receive their friends. Married ladies may go out shopping alone early in the day. Among intimate friends young men occasionally call on their young lady friends alone, but this is not general, European customs prevailing.

The Cubans are very fond of fencing, and it is remarkable that the good fencers scarcely ever have duels, or seek quarrels. Duelling is practised ad libitum in all Cuba among the upper class. Just before the war it had become an everyday occurrence; in fact, in one week as many as five duels took place between men well known in Havana society and clubs. As a rule the seconds manage to stop the fight after the first wound, even catching at the pretext of a flesh wound on the forearm; appealing to the attending surgeon to state whether he considers the wound will impair the free use of the arm, and also if there is any chance of nervous twitches setting in from the pain. It is unnecessary to add that the surgeon invariably finds that it is very likely that all of these contingencies may occur—thereby stopping the duel, and “honour is satisfied.”

Baseball, bull-fights, and cock-fights were the most popular entertainments until recently; cock-fights have waned now in popularity considerably, whilst bull-fights are patronised by the Spanish element exclusively. Baseball continues to hold public favour, and since its introduction some twenty years ago a taste for athletics has developed among the Cubans, which was lacking before. Horse-racing was in vogue while there was capital to import foreign half-breeds, but it has now completely died out.

The foreign population of the Island is comparatively limited. A large number of German merchants are engaged in all branches of the tobacco business, which they practically control. It will be found that the knowledge and experience of the Germans in this respect have given them preferment in the direction and management of the largest syndicates and tobacco firms. A sprinkling of English, Americans, and French are to be found throughout the country.

The coloured inhabitants of Cuba (mulattoes) are usually the children of black women and white fathers—the cases of a white woman having children with a black father being so rare as to be nearly unknown. In the cities the mulattoes are servants,—not hotel waiters, for they are all Spaniards,—barbers, and occasionally musicians. Mulatto women, though usually very statuesque in appearance, are unprincipled and insolent.

A NATIVE HUT. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J. F. COONLEY, NASSAU, N. P.
A NATIVE HUT.
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J. F. COONLEY, NASSAU, N. P.

The Cuban negro inherits from his forefathers, the African slaves, a physique and a character strengthened and tempered by the toil of generations. During the sugar season he works steadily, from four in the morning until sunset every day, taking only two hours of rest with his meals. The coloured population shows no inclination to be on terms of equality with the white, and though under General Calleja’s administration negroes and mulattoes were all granted the handle of “Don” (Mr.) to their names, and though the right to be recognised in hotels, theatres, street-cars, etc., on equal terms with the whites has been extended to them, they have not availed themselves of the privilege to any extent.

The savagery of the African negro has, unfortunately, shown itself among his descendants in the Island. Some years ago a secret society called “ÑaÑigos” was introduced in Havana. These ÑaÑigos are divided into bands, whose object is to fight and kill each other. They commit all sorts of depredations and crimes. It has often been shown that the police have been in their pay. Some four hundred were banished some time ago to Spanish penitentiaries, together with political suspects, with whom they were chained in couples and marched through the streets of Havana prior to embarking. This is one of the many acts of refined cruelty that the Spaniards committed during the late insurrection; most respectable and honourable men, accused of sympathising in the cause of the rebellion, were chained arm to arm with negroes of the lowest caste, who, besides being convicted for crime, defiled the very atmosphere around them from the filth of their attire. The ÑaÑigos have lately been returned to Havana and set free, where they have lost no time in renewing their criminal work.

The Chinese element was brought over by contract for working on sugar plantations. They were virtually slaves until the Chinese Government intervened in their behalf.

The following extract from the comprehensive report of Mr. Robert T. Hill, of the United States Geological Survey on the Island of Cuba, may be considered as authority on the subject of population:

“Seventy-five percent. of the native population of the Island is found outside of the Spanish capital of Habana, which, being the seat of an unwelcome foreign despotism, is no more representative of Cuban life or character than is the English city of Hong Kong of the rural Chinese. While the Habanese have had the freest communication with the United States during the last three years of the revolution, Americans have had little opportunity to hear from the true white Cuban population. The Cubans are mostly found in the provinces and provincial cities, especially in Pinar del Rio and the eastern provinces of Santa Clara, Puerto Principe, and Santiago. Although of Spanish blood, the Cubans, through adaptation to environment, have become a different class from the people of the mother country, just as the American stock has differentiated from the English. Under the influence of their surroundings, they have developed into a gentle, industrious, and normally peaceable race, not to be judged by the combativeness which they have developed under a tyranny such as has never been imposed upon any other people. The better class of Camagueynos, as the natives are fond of calling themselves, are certainly the finest, the most valiant, and the most independent men of the Island, while the women have the highest type of beauty. It is their boast that no Cuban woman has ever become a prostitute, and crime is certainly almost unknown among them.

“While these people may not possess our local customs and habits, they have strong traits of civilised character, including honesty, family attachment, hospitality, politeness of address, and a respect for the golden rule. While numerically inferior to the annual migration of Poles, Jews, and Italians into the eastern United States, against which no official voice is raised, they are too far superior to these people to justify the abuse that has been heaped upon them by those who have allowed their judgment to be prejudiced by fears that they might by some means be absorbed into our future population.

“Notwithstanding the disadvantages under which the Cubans have laboured, they have contributed many members to the learned professions. To educate their sons and daughters in the institutions of the United States, England, and France has always been the highest ambition of the creoles of Cuba and Porto Rico. The influence of their educated men is felt in many countries, the most distinguished professor of civil engineering, two leading civil engineers of our navy, and the most eminent authority on yellow fever in our country belonging to this class. Thousands of these people, driven from their beloved Island, have settled in Paris, London, New York, Mexico, and the West Indies, where they hold honourable positions in society, and even the exiles of the lower classes, with their superior agricultural arts, have been eagerly welcomed in countries like Jamaica, Mexico, and Florida, which hope to share with Cuba the benefits of its tobacco culture.

“THE NEGROES

“In addition to the white creole population, thirty-two per cent. are black or coloured—using the latter word in its correct signification, of a mixture of the black and white. This black population of Cuba has been as little understood in this country as has been the creole, especially by those who have alleged that in case Cuba should gain her freedom the Island would become a second Haiti. The black and coloured people of the Island as a class are more independent and manly in their bearing than their brethren of the United States, having possessed even before slavery was abolished on the Island the four rights of free marriage, of seeking a new master at their option, of purchasing their freedom by labour, and of acquiring property. While the negro shares with the creole the few local rights possessed by any of the inhabitants, their social privileges are greater than here, although a strong caste feeling exists. Miscegenation has also produced many mulattoes, but race mixture is no more common than in this country.

“The coloured people of Cuba belong to several distinct classes. The majority of them are descendants of slaves imported during the present century, but a large number, like the negroes of Colombia and the maroons of Jamaica, come from a stock which accompanied the earliest Spanish settlers, like Estevan, the negro, who, with the two white companions of Cabeza de Vaca, first crossed the United States from the Gulf of Mexico to California in 1528-36. The amalgamation of this class in the past century with the Spanish stock produced a superior class of free mulattoes of the Antonio Maceo type, unlike any people in this country with which they can be compared.

“The current expressions of fear concerning the future relations of this race in Cuba seem inexplicable. The slaves of the South were never subjected to a more abject servitude than have been the free-born whites of Cuba, for they at least were protected from arbitrary capital punishment, imprisonment, and deportation without form of trial, such as that to which all Cubans are still subjected, and the white race of this or any other country has furnished few more exalted examples of patriotism than the mulattoes Toussaint L’Ouverture or Antonio Maceo.

“The experiences of the past have shown that there is no possibility of Cuba becoming Africanised without constant renewal by immigration. The 520,000 coloured people, one-half of whom are mulattoes, represent the diminished survival of over 1,000,000 African slaves that have been imported. The Spaniards had the utmost difficulty in acclimatising and establishing this race upon the Island. While Jamaica and other West India islands are a most prolific negro-breeding ground, the race could not be made to thrive in Cuba.

“Those persons who undertake to say what the social conditions of Cuba would be under independence should look elsewhere than to Haiti for a comparison. Even were the population of Cuba black, as it is not, the island of Jamaica would afford a much better contrast. This island, only about one-tenth the size of Cuba, is composed of mountainous lands like the least fertile portion of Cuba; has a population wherein the blacks outnumber the whites forty-four to one; yet, under the beneficent influence of the English colonial system, its civilisation is one of which any land might be proud, possessing highways, sanitation, and other public improvements even superior to those of our own country, and such as have never been permitted by Spain in Cuba. Even though Cuba should become a second Haiti, which it could not, there is some satisfaction in knowing, in the light of historic events, that Haiti free, although still grovelling in the savagery which it inherited, is better off than it would have been had Napoleon succeeded in forcing its people back into slavery, as he endeavoured to do.

“Another fact which will stand against the Africanising of Cuba is that it is highly probable that nearly one-half of these five hundred thousand coloured people have been destroyed during the present insurrection. A large number of them had but recently been released from the bonds of slavery, and were naturally the poorer class of the Island, upon which the hardships have mostly fallen, being generally the field hands in the sugar districts of Habana, Matanzas, and Santa Clara, where the death-rate of the terrible Weyler reconcentramiento has been greatest. Three hundred thousand of the five hundred thousand blacks belonged to these provinces, and of this number fully one-half have been starved to death. The population of Cuba has undergone great modification since the collection of the statistics given. What changes the deplorable conflict has wrought can only be surmised. Beyond doubt, however, the population has at least been reduced to a million inhabitants by emigration of non-combatants, destruction in battle, official deportation of suspects and political prisoners, and by the reconcentration.

“The rural population of the four western provinces of Pinar del Rio, Habana, Matanzas, and Santa Clara has been totally obliterated. Estimates of this extermination are all more or less conjectural, but the Bishop of Habana is authority for the statement that more than four hundred thousand people have been buried in the consecrated cemetery.”