History of Cuba; or, Notes of a Traveller in the Tropics: Being a Political, Historical, and Statistical Account of the Island, from its First Discovery to the Present TimeBallou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
History
History of Cuba; or, Notes of a Traveller in the Tropics: Being a Political, Historical, and Statistical Account of the Island, from its First Discovery to the Present Time
Ballou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
Cuba -- Description and travel; Cuba -- History
If Cuba come into our possession peaceably, as the fruits of a fair
bargain, or as a free-will offering of her sons, after a successful
revolution, we can predict for her a future as bright as her past has
been desolate and gloomy; for the union of a territory with a foreign
population to our confederacy is no new and doubtful experiment.
Louisiana, with her French and Spanish Creoles, is one of the most
reliable states of the Union; and, not long after her admission, she
signed, with her best blood, the pledge of fealty to the common country.
More recently, we all remember how, when Taylor, in the presence of the
foe upon the Rio Grande, called for volunteers, the gallant Creoles
rushed to arms, and crowded to his banner. The Creoles of Cuba are of
the same blood and lineage,--Spaniards in chivalry of soul, without the
ferocity and fanaticism of the descendants of the Cid. We are sure, from
what they have shown in the past, that liberal institutions will develop
latent qualities which need only free air for their expansion. They will
not want companions, friends and helpers. A tide of emigration from the
States will pour into the island, the waste lands will be reclaimed, and
their hidden wealth disclosed; a new system of agricultural economy will
be introduced; the woods of the island will furnish material for
splendid ships; towns and villages will rise with magical celerity, and
the whole surface of the "garden of the world" will blossom like the
rose.
"Rich in soil, salubrious in climate, varied in productions, the home of
commerce," says the Hon. O.R. Singleton, of Mississippi, "Cuba seems to
have been formed to become 'the very button on Fortune's cap.' Washed by
the Gulf-stream on half her borders, with the Mississippi pouring out
its rich treasures on one side, and the Amazon, destined to become a
'cornucopia,' on the other,--with the ports of Havana and Matanzas on
the north, and the Isle of Pines and St. Jago de Cuba on the south,
Nature has written upon her, in legible characters, a destiny far above
that of a subjugated province of a rotten European dynasty. Her home is
in the bosom of the North American confederacy. Like a lost Pleiad, she
may wander on for a few months or years in lawless, chaotic confusion;
but, ultimately, the laws of nature and of nations will vindicate
themselves, and she will assume her true social and political condition,
despite the diplomacy of statesmen, the trickery of knaves, or the
frowns of tyrants. Cuba will be free. The spirit is abroad among her
people; and, although they dare not give utterance to their thoughts,
lest some treacherous breeze should bear them to a tyrant's ears, still
they think and feel, and will act when the proper time shall arrive. The
few who have dared 'to do or die' have fallen, and their blood still
marks the spot where they fell. Such has been the case in all great
revolutionary struggles. Those who lead the van must expect a sharp
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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