The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-06-09

low the horizon, and have poured confusion
upon the heads Of those who had tried to per-
suade me out Of my zeal in the search
AprH 30.--The friend with whom | have
planned an excursion to the eastern part Of
the island not being quite ready to set out
am consequently still in the city, waiting his
movements. | do not wish to leave the island
without visiting Matanzas and the romantic
valley of the Yamun, Limonar and its highly
cultivated edfetdies--it is quite disappointment
enough, that | have been obliged to forego my
Journey to Hayti and Jamaica. Slavery in
Cuba is very different thing from slavery in
America but | was still more anxious to see
for myself the effects of emancipation, than to
witness this particular phase of slavery. With
regard to Hayti, the only persons here who
seem to know anything about that island are
old French gentlemen, who took refuge here in
the times of the nsurrection and from them,
of course, one hears nothing but lamentations
over the ruin of their beautiful homes. The
English steamer for st. Thomas touches at
Jacmel, which port, however is too far distant
from Port au Prince and the Cape to make it
4 desirable place whence to observe the state
of the island.
Compelled to remain at Havana, have tried
to see as much of the place and the people as
possible have revived my old acquaintance
with the language, and find that We are on
better terms than | could have hoped, after SO
| long a non-intercourse. | can make myself
understood, and can understand whatever is
| said to me and am thus enabled to move about
with considerable freedom Information about
| the state of the island is very hard to collect
| The cold Spaniards" are very chary of COM
municating anything at all, and the Creoles
| communicate nothing but news unfavorable to
| Spain. Their hostility to the Government is 80
sharp, that it acts like mordant, biting in the
| darkest shades of every picture they present to
| you The newspapers publish nothing Of any
| importance. Since my return there have been
| two or three criminal executions, and the gar
| rOtte has been twice erected at the Punta, for
| political offenders, who were afterwards re-
| proved and sent to Ceuta. The only allusion
to any of these events, in any of the journals
| was most singular communication on the out
side of the Diario purporting to be sort of
| jubttdte, or grdtiGS dgtmuS, from the wife a
certain Garcia, who ought to have suffered
something, but had been spared by the Queens
mercy and the Captain Generals. No one
who had not heard in some other way of this
Garcia and his position, could have imagined
what the communication meant. Then, there
have been two mutinies of troops, accompanied
with fusilades; one at Villa Clara, and the
other at Santiago de Cuba--or Ceuba, as they
call it here. The latter affair was so serious
as to require the presence of the Captain Gen
eral, and the newspapers chronicle his voyage
to the south, without giving hint of its Oh
jects. The former was darby glanced at in
certain leaders, Mandatory of the firm justice
of Spain," wherein the scandalous tongues of
| a neighboring country were forbidden to wag
against the majesty of Castian military exc
| cutions The news Of the island is only to be
picked up at hearsay, and chiefly on the covered
| quay near the mouth of the harbor, where the
merchants congregate every morning. as of old
on the Rialto. Naturally, the stories current
there are to be received with very great caution.
However, the general uniform tenor of the cur,
rent rumors goes to confirm my impression that
the island is in state of great agitation. The
accession of General Pierce to power, and the
nomination of Mr.. Soule as Minister to Spain,
are events which the disaffected here persist in
regarding as the precursors of the separation
of Cuba from the dominion of Spain. The
| leading papers of Havana affect to believe that
the present Administration has not, nor can
have, any designs upon the island; but the ILL
| concealed dislike and dread of the Americans,
here on subjects concerning the United States
and the pains which the editor of the D,ario
de la Marina in particular has been taking to
| prove that Spain would have been the gamer,
| and not the loser, by an American war, and
| the plain annunciatiOns that have been made,
| to the effect that it may soon be necessary for
the home Government to adopt measures that
| shall ruin the trade between America and Gu
ba-all these things 20 to show that the for
eign authority in Cuba is i'll at ease. The an
noyances and injustice perpetrated throughout
| the island, in the name OF what the Govern
ment is pleased to style "the interest of order
and of the Spanish race" still continue; and,
| though have been forced to conceive q low
opinion of the Creole character, still it seems
to me quite impossible that the present policy
of Spain can be pursued much longer, without
producing an outbreak. To that outbreak,
should it take place without American inter-
ventiOn, the Creolcs and Spaniards will not be
the only parties. The demeanOr of the ne
groes in general is such as to lead me to put
faith in the statements made to me by various
persons, from different parts of the island that
| a combination has been for some time forming
which is intended to prepare the black popula-
| ton of Cuba for taking part in the commOtiOn
which all persons are more or less vaguely ex
pectng The sanguinary story of this beauti-
ful island depend upon it. is not yet brought
to close. The catastrophe at which hint
may be delayed by annexation, but it will only
be delayed to be more dreadful in its consum-
nation. Cuba contains a negro population,
the like of which is unknown in Americas
population of sayages, of fierce, unreclaimed
Africans captured in war, banded together
still in tribes. At present, the comparative
mildness Of the Spanish slave laws, and the
facilities for emancipation, at once diminish
the general temptations to revolt, and the
chances of its success by raising distinctions
among the black population which impede
their cordial union How long the slaves of
| Cuba would quietly endure the more stringent
American system-how long the free blacks Of
Cuba would quietly endure the change for the
worse in their condition. which would follow
the introduction of the American laws--re-
mains to be proved. w. II II.
CANADA.-TERRIBLE CoNFLAGRATIoN- The
albany Evening Journal publishes the follow
ing extract from letter. dated
"MoNrREAI, May 81, 1853.
wrote you some days since in regard to
a lire IN the woods in the town Of Westmeath.
Them the half had not been told us. More
recent information shows that it was the most
| appalling and destructive conhagration which
has ever visited the Canadas. 1t swept, in its
mad and irresistible career, through the towns
OF Westmeath, Ross, Bagot, Pembroke, Brom-
ley, Horton, Shear, and the islands of Calu-
met and Les Allumettes
The flames were driven forward with great
impetnosity. Hundreds of familes-men wo-
men, and children-had to flee before the de-
vouring element with nothing of their prop
erty saved but their clothes and these were
often burned upon their backs Fortunately,
there were but a few lives lost-only one aged
man having, as far as learned, persisted. Many
cattle, however hogs, &c, were burned. Mu.
titudes had to take refuge in the Muskrat
river, to protect their bodies and at one point