The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-25
WEYLER BANISHES NANIG0S.
THEY WERE NEGROES VINO KILL
ED ONE WHITE 4 WEEK.
All Voodoo WOrshipers-New York
Broker Narrowly Escapes Them
They Never Leave Any Victim

Broker Narrowly Escapes Them.
They Never Leave Any Victim
Alive.
From the New York Press.
Weyler has done one useful thing since
he has been in Cuba. dispatch from
Havana Tuesday announced that 27S men,
bers of the Mango Society have been ar
rested and 1ss2shed to the Spanish penal
colony at Ceuta, Africa.
Few Americans who saw this paragraph
knew its real significance, probably imag-
lining that the Nanigos are some society Of
insurrectionists. In reality they are the
deadly foes of Cubans and spaniards
alike, the most dreaded scourge OF the
town and province of Havana, and to a
lesser degree of the whole of Cuba.
The Nanigos are a society of murder
ers-the cruelest, most diabolical and
bloodthirsty in the world. They consist
entirely of negroes, mulattos and quad
rooms, and the oath they take on Joining
the society binds them to kill every White
man of whatever nationality whom they
are able to catch undefended.
The society was first heard of in tine
year 1879, a short time after the close of
the first Cuban Instruction, which lasted
from 1868 to 1873. None except the ne
groes know when it was founded 1t
had probably existed ever since whites
and blacks lived together in Cuba. But
at the time mentioned the white inhabi-
tants of the island came to know of the
existence of this organization of the ne
groes, and from then until the present
time its activity has continually been
1cfy toI ~ l.
assassinations. The society is not a po-
litical, but a racial, organization. Al
though the failure of the first rebellion
gave 1t an opportunity to pursue it's OBJ
jects, it's work will not be ended until
the last European in Cuba has been slain
1t represents the undying hatred of The
negroes for those who first enslaved and
afterward freed them.
The first important murder committed
by the Nanigos was that of Don Diego de
Miranda, rich resident of Havana and
q retired haciendado. He was found ly-
ing in a pool of blood in Obrapria street,
Havana, in April 1879. He had gone out
for an evening walk and his body was
found in the morning, stabbed through the
heart. The bow had been struck from be-
hind, That has been the invariable prac-
tice of the assassins in all subsequent muir
ders. The deed is done late at night, the
killed with a long knife, the murdered al
ways trying to reach as near the heart as
possible. 1t is remarkable fact that
no victim of the Nanigos has been found
merely wounded. The work is always
completed, and nothing but the dead body
left to tell the ta.e.
Since the murder Of Miranda the assas-
sinatons of whites in Havana alone have
been almost numberiess. A week rarely
WitbOnf a ono hiff often mora
murders having been committed.
Merchants, lawyers, soldiers, foreign Wis
itors, shopkeepers, artisans, laborers-ev-
cry rank of society has contributed its vic
tins to the butchery of the Nangos as
long as the victim is white his death is
welcome to the black fiends, although
wealthy and prominent persons are par
ticularly sought after.
One of the saddest tragedies was the
murder of a beautiful young girl in 1886
She was Consuelo Alvarez, and was re-
turning from a reception at the Union Club
in a carriage Some accident happened
to the horse, and as she was within a block
or two from her home she thought she
could walk without danger. BY this time
the whites in Havana had become thor
oughly frightened at the Nanigos. and
after sunset hardly a man was intrepid
enough to go out at night alone. Donra
Alvarez,s courage proved her death. In
the morning her dead body was found with
the record of the Nan.gos upon it, only q
few yards from home and safety.
A New York broker, who visited Cuba
in the fall of 1882, gave his experience OF
the Nanigos to a Press reporter. Two oil
three nights after his arrival he-knowins
nothing of the danger he ran-walxed oui
after sunset. He found the streets utter.
ly deserted by pedestrians, and could moi
account for it, as the evening was cool and
refreshing after the heat of the day. He
walked down Mercaveres street, and be.
fore long found he was peing followed by
a couple Of negroes. Just then a car.
riage drove rapidly up and he recognized
two women in it, whom he had met the day
before. In the most excited tones they
begged him to jump into the vehicle, and
when he had done SO, told him Of the risk
he incurred. He mentioned the negroes
whom he had noticed fdNowing him, and
was told that he had had narrow and
most providential escape from certain
death. HAD we not happened to see you
then" said one of the women, you would
never have returned to your hotel alive. y
But the deeds of this society of assassins
are not always discovered Often proml-
nent people have left their homes in Ha-
vana for an hour or two and have never
been seen again. 1t is supposed that in
these cases the Nanigos have not only
slain their victims. but have carried their
bodies away, to be used in some of the
rites in which they take part.
For the Nanigos are, all of them, voodoc
worshipers. 1t was in connection with the
horrible practices of this cult that the
murder society was organized The as
sassns are not only racial, but religious
fanatics, and they look upon every crime
they commit as so much in their favor
with voodoo. None, except the blacks
themselves, know what the inner myster-
les of this awful worship are; those which
Europeans are permitted to witness are
terrible enough, but only rumors of the
concealed rites reach the ears of out.
siders.
The same man who had the experience
I'm Havana detailed above, was present at
some of the rites Of the Cuban voodoo
worshipers, and describes them as the
most CHASTITY scenes he ever witnessed.
The negroes danced on stills until eX-