7,975 7,934 8,117 8,422 8, 427 9,709 14,749 46, 477 40,835 159,709 PROVINCE OF SANTIAGO. [Municipal districts marked thus (*) send no returns for these tables. From districts marked thus (+) returns are certainly incomplete. From districts marked thus (‡) they are probably incomplete.] To 1888. 1889. 1890. 1891. 1892. 1893. 1894. 1895. 1896. 1897. 1898. 1899. tal. Santiago de Cubat 1, 187 1, 157 1,009 1,374 1,099 1,187 1,031 2,810 4,012 4,497 6,017 21, 198 26,578 Total.. 3,542 3,614 3,309 3,760 3,324 3, 169 3, 324 6,523 9,894 9,971 12,053 3,604 69,299 1 For 1898-99. 2 Jan. 1-Oct. 31. APPENDIX XIX. POPULATION.1 The population of Cuba in 1511, when Diego Velasquez came from Santo Domingo with 300 colonists, can not be determined. To search through the scanty records which remain in the archives of the Indies at Seville would be in vain; nor is the information to be found in the Decades of Herrera, the Chronicles of Oviedo, of Gomarra, of Bernal Diaz of Castile, or in any other books of the time. Some estimated the population at 200,000, others at 300,000, others thought it still more; but all agreed that the Indians were not adapted to labor in the fields and mines, and that they were rapidly disappearing. This occurred in spite of the personal freedom authorized by several royal decrees and recognized soon after in the grants of vassals (encomiendas) and in spite of the first code of laws of the Indies, which went into effect in Cuba in 1543. From various reports of the grants (encomiendas) made by Velasquez it can be inferred that they had at that early period some 15,000 Indian vassals. The disappearance of those Indians, the causes of which have been much exaggerated by some foreign writers, could not have been so complete and rapid as supposed, when more than seventy years after the conquest the towns of Cobre and Guanabacoa were founded by the survivors. Even in the seventeenth century, too, there still existed near Bayamon the village of Pueblo Viejo with a population descended exclusively from aborigines. In a letter to the King in 1522 a lawyer named Valdillo, resident judge of the second Governor, Gonzalo de Guzman,' stated that there were some 5,000 natives in the whole island, and about 500 African negroes, including in this number 120 who had arrived only a few months before. Valdillo added that he had not ascertained the number of Spaniards, but it is evident from previous letters that the Spanish inhabitants of Santiago did not exceed 30. 3 In 1528 there were no more than that in Habana, and there were still fewer in the other villages, Baracoa, the oldest of them, being almost depopulated. From another letter written by the royal treasurer July 9, 1532, and preserved in the same volume, we infer that there were at that time some 300 Spaniards on the island, probably 5,000 Indians, and about as many negroes as indicated by Valdillo. According to another letter written by Gonzalo de Guzman February 5, 1537, the city of Santiago had for two years supplied the wants of the vessels which were plying between the Peninsula, Santo Domingo, and the Spanish Main. Our want of reliabler cords thus makes it impossible for us to estimate the native population of Cuba. Suffice it to say that that early race has disappeared, has been absorbed by that other race which early in the sixteenth century attempted the civilization of the world. Let us turn our attention to problems, for the solution of which we have more data. Accounts say that in 1511, soon after Velasquez had arrived in Cuba with his 300 Spaniards, as stated above, a multitude of colonists came from Santo Domingo, Jamaica, and Darien, and settled in the oldest towns of the island. They were at variance with the governors of those colonies, and had been attracted to Cuba by reports of Velasquez's kindness to his subordinates, as well as by the fertility of a soil said to be as suitable for cattle-raising as for cultivation. Their number could not have been considerable, since in 1515 the whole number of Spaniards in the New 1 Free and somewhat abridged translation of article "Population" in Pezuela's Dictionary of Cuba, with omission of the tables. 2 See eighty-seventh volume of the Munoz Collection in the library of The Academy of Iistory at Madrid. Eighty-seventh volume Munoz collection. 4 Eighty-first volume Munoz collection. World was scarcely 10,000, and the first colonial generation had not then had time to multiply. Those who helped to swell the population of Cuba in the early years were, however, so numerous that Francisco Fernandez de Cordova could take from its towns more than 200 men on his expedition to Yucatan in 1517, could lose nearly 100 in his luckless venture, and yet two years later Juan de Grijalva could secure more than 300 with whom to reconnoiter the Mexican coast. In the following year Cortez also took from Cuba 617 men, with whom he achieved the incredible conquest of the Mexican Empire. Supposing that there remained in the country twice as many colonists who preferred the tranquil lot which the cultivation of their estates promised to any such hazardous adventures, it is estimated that more than a thousand Spaniards stayed in Cuba while that gigantic conquest was going on. This estimate will not appear excessive if one bears in mind the fact that on learning that his disloyal general, Cortez, had cast off his allegiance, Velasquez dispatched a year later another expedition to subdue him, which consisted of 1,000 fighters, not counting the crews of the ships. Taking the same basis that we had for our first surmise, we can calculate that at the death of Velasquez, which occurred in 1512, there were some 2,000 Castilians distributed in the Cuban towns which he had founded. Many circumstances combined to reduce their numbers, chiefly the fact that women in proportion to the number of men had not come to the new possessions. For the aggrandizement and the wealth of the Spanish power two immense empires were laid low, that of the Incas and that of Anahuac. Fancy was inflamed by the first fruits of a conquest made by means that nowadays would not suffice for the taking of a plaza or a province. The wonders and the treasures of those regions were exaggerated, and Spaniards hastened thither to make easy fortunes. Only the first founders remained in the early colonies of Cuba, Jamaica, and Santo Domingo-those who had already made their fortunes and had their grants of vassals (encomiendas) or those who on account of old age preferred quiet traffic in produce and in cattle to the dangers and fatigues of such ventures with their uncertain outcome. The abolition of the grants of Indian vassals, a humane, although tardy, measure by which the Crown sought the preservation of the native race in the New World, soon drove into the adventurous life of conquest some of those who would have preferred to remain at home. Two other causes also helped to decrease rather than increase the white population of Cuba; first, the restrictions on exportation to the Continent of horses bred in Cuban fields, which was the principal source of revenue in Cuba's growing commerce; and, secondly, Hernando de Soto's disastrous expedition to Florida, which drew off many colonists from Cuba. The depopulation of Cuba begun by the conquests was sadly increased by the violent attacks of buccaneers and pirates, who swarmed from Europe to share in the booty of the New World. In the middle of the sixteenth century they surprised, sacked, and destroyed Santiago and Habana, the two principal towns. Those towns were so destroyed and deserted that according to one account' there were on July 1, 1555, in the capital of the Antilles, which is to-day so populous, only 38 families and 13 strangers or sojourners. If any report on the population of the island was made for more than a century afterwards, it has disappeared. In the documents referring to Cuba, which are preserved in the general archives of the Indies at Seville, none has been found. Don Antonio J. Valdez, referring in his History of Habana to some traditions and incidents subsequent to the year 1656, the year in which the English had 1 See eighty-seventh volume of Munoz Collection in the archives of the Academy of History. taken possession of Jamaica, says that the emigration of Spaniards from that island caused an increase of more than 8,000 souls in the population of Cuba, which was estimated to contain after that some 30,000 souls. In spite of the almost defenseless state of the country, in spite of pirates and hostile armaments that still frequently menaced its inhabitants and the restrictions on navigation and commerce, so inimical to the extension of its agriculture, the indomitable courage of the country rose superior to all obstacles; and in the midst of difficulties, although slowly, the cultivation of the soil increased, and with it the population. In the Voyages of Francisco Coreal in the West Indies, published in Paris in 1697, that author calculated there were more than 50,000 souls on the island and more than 25,000 in the capital. The Austrian dynasty on the Spanish throne became extinct on the death of Charles II. The first sovereign of the Bourbon line, who from the first year of the last century occupied the throne by vote of the people and by aid of France, returned the favors of his new fatherland by giving French traders a share in Spain's commerce with its colonial empire. Under pretext of being allies the French, from 1702 to 1703, entered upon such commercial speculations with Habana as the poverty of the country and the superiority of the English navy would permit. The French and Spanish held their own very successfully in the waters of Cuba against the English and Dutch in the long war of the Spanish succession, and owing to that fact and thanks also to the increase in the cultivation of tobacco, the population likewise increased on a greater scale than ever before. After 1718 that increase was promoted by the introduction of African slaves, a privilege granted exclusively to England by the peace of Utrecht; and towards 1730 the population of Cuba, not including troops, visitors, or seamen, was, according to statements in a multitude of documents of that time, estimated at more than 100,000 souls. It was increased later by the emigration of Spaniards from Florida, which was ceded to England in 1763, by immunities from taxes upon navigation and commerce, and by the erection of considerable fortification works which were started that same year in Habana by foreigners. But not even the metropolitan government itself had authentic and accurate data about the population before 1774. In that year the Marquis de la Torre, the Captain-General in command at the time, finished making his first census. As shown by that important document, the population of the island had already been increased by the combination of aforesaid circumstances to 172,620. The government was divided into eighteen jurisdictions, viz: Habana; Santiago de Cuba; the holdings of the government of Puerto Principe; Matanzas; Trinidad; Bayamo y Baracoa; the distritos of Santiago de las Vegas, Pinar del Rio, which was just being colonized; the Isle of Pines; Santa Maria del Rosario; Guanabacoa; Jaruco; San Juan de los Remedios; Santa Clara o Villa-Clara; Sancti Spiritus; Holguin and San Felipe; and Santiago. In the whole length and breadth of the land-including towns, the scattered estates, and the rural districts-there were about 29,588 houses or buildings, not counting 90 churches, 52 parochial houses, 20 monasteries, 3 nunneries, 2 colleges, and 19 hospitals. In these resided 55,376 male whites, 40,864 females of the same color, 19,207 free mulattoes, and 11,640 negroes, also free, and, finally, 44,333 slaves. A second general census was taken in 1792 by order of Captain-General Don Luis de las Casas. It showed a further increase of population, manifestly due to various causes. Among them might be mentioned the aforesaid free-trade agreement by which the exports of Cuba and all America had free entrance into the principal ports of the Peninsula; the assemblage of military powers in Habana 1See Valdez, Historia de la Habana, published in Habana, 1814, p. 76. from 1779 to 1783 during the four years of war between Spain and Great Britain; the introduction of slaves from Africa; and the destruction of the rich French colony of Santo Domingo, whose place in the market Cuba immediately attempted to take with some of her own wares. In spite of the statistical works repeatedly ordered by the Marquis of Someruelos, during his long rule no census was published again until 1817. By aid of the partial registry rolls, Don Francisco Arango y Parreno compiled some notes in reference to the long interval between 1792 and 1817. According to his figures, the population of the jurisdiction of Habana in 1810 was not less than 161,000 whites, 42,000 free colored, and 147,000 slaves, which represented a total of 350,000 inhabitants for the western part of Cuba. He calculated that in the eastern part, Santiago de Cuba, there were 40,000 whites, 38.000 free colored, and 32,000 slaves, making a total of 110,000 inhabitants. Seventy thousand more were found in the territory of Puerto Principe alone, including 38,000 whites, 14,000 free colored, and 18,000 slaves. In the territory of the four towns he estimated that there were 35,000 whites, 20,000 free colored, and 15,000 slaves, making a total of 70,000 inhabitants. The notes made by Arango were published July 20, 1811, by the secretary of the consulate, Don Antonio Valle Hernandez, for the use of the board of instruction. They showed an entire population of 600,000. This extraordinary increase of nearly 328,000 in a single period of nineteen years is very naturally explained by the immigration of large numbers of French and Spanish, who betook themselves to the island in 1803, after the United States had taken possession of Louisiana and after the negroes had made themselves masters of Santo Domingo. The population was also immensely increased through the constant importation of negroes, through the steady growth of agriculture due to them, and through the acquisition of commercial privileges with foreigners, although their liberty was not declared until 1818. The Captain-General of the island, Don José de Cienfuegos, published in 1817 another census of the population. It showed a total of 553,028, nearly 47,000 less than Arango's census, published by Valle Hernandez. What caused that decrease? Instead of good reasons for a loss there appear to have been many conditions during the six years that intervened between the census of 1811 and that of 1817 that might have stimulated a natural increase in the population. Such were the constant importation of Africans, the encouragement of agriculture in nearly every district (distritos), and the extension of commerce from year to year and month to month. Many have thought that the inexplicable decrease in the census of 1817 had its origin in the concealment practiced by many of the planters regarding the true number of their slaves. They did so out of desire to escape a poll tax levied at that time. Only thus can the fact be explained that the official count was less than that made six years before by Arango. The Captain-General, Don Francisco Dionisio Vives, ordered in 1826 the taking of another general census, with the addition of interesting statistical data that had not been included in the three previous censuses. This document, of which we also give a summary, showed a total population of 704,487 inhabitants, thus proving that the decrease of population shown in the census of 1817 was a mistake. The conditions which obtained on the island between the census of 1817 and that of 1827 had not been so favorable that its population could have been increased by 151,459 people. It had been a decade of danger, vicissitude, and turmoil. Spain's colonial empire had just shaken off the yoke. The unsettled condition that prevailed from 1820 to 1823 had banished confidence from Cuban soil and driven away a portion of the capital that at a normal time would have made the island productive. However that may be, the census or statistical report of 1827 was the most com |
