The record-union., 1896-03-07
CRUELTIES OF OLD SPAIN.
Utter Destruction Of the Natives of the
West Indies.
Samuel Jenkins Ear-Has Spain Bet
tered Her Ways?-The Lives and
Treasure She Has Wasted.

It was a highly amusing incident. It
occurred to one Jenkins, as far back
as the year 1879 And, although it
happened more than a century and a
half ago, England has never quite for
gotten it, though Spain probably has.
The story runs thus: There was a
treaty Of commerce between England
and Spain, and there were contraband
goods smuggled into the Spanish set
Elements existing in America in those
days, just as there will be munitions of
war run into Cuba now, and the Span
iards were quite as cruel in 1879 as
they are in 1895. Let US take an old
account of the case, as we find it in the
History, Civil and Commercial, of the
British Colonies in the West Indies,'' as
written by Byran Edwards in 1893 "A
Spanish commander, after rummaging
Captain Jenkins vessel for what he
called contraband goods, without find
ing any, put Jenkins 10 the torture, and
afterward, without the smallest provo
cation, cut off one of his ears, telling
him to carry it to the King of England,
his MASTER
jenkins did exactly what he was told.
The severed ear he preserved in spirits
in a bottle, and he carried it as a relic
and exhibited it as his own particular
ear to the House of Commons. The Eng
lish Government at that time was
rather undecided as to whether it had
or had not a cause of quarrel with
Spain-and Sir Robert Walpole was a
clever statesman and a good deal of a
trimmer When Jenkins showed around
his ear, he was asked by some curious
members, How did you feel, Captain
Jenkins about ESPECIALLY at the time
of the severance of your carp 81 rec
commended my soul to God and my
cause to my country" said stanch Skip
per Jenkins. Then the trimmers had
nothing more to say.
That lost ear at once brought about a
war with Spain, and then Pitt, who in
1739 was a nobody-onf- a little cornet
took part in the disussion, and that
was the opening he wanted. That very
year Vernon captured Porto Bello and
the next year, in prizes. Spain had to
pay many millions of dollars. That ear
cost Spain more than money, for then
began the real breaking up of her hold
on those vast possessions in the New
World ever since the discovery
Spanish internal conditions are not
often understood. Spain is a study in
ITSELF with its racial peculiarities, its
racial instincts. Historical precedents,
like human antecedents. have their eff
fects to-day. One might say that as
youthful indiscretions affect the charac-
ter of the adult man, it is the same with
an entire people as it is with individu-
ais. Spain started badly with the ex-
pulsion of the Moors and the persecu-
ton of the Jews. She has always been
an impoverished and discontented
country. There has been great indi-
vidual wealth at times, with general
poverty The vast riches in gold and
silver which flowed into Spain were abb
sorbed by the few. The State always
had the largest share, and the State was
the King and the favored few. Though
no calculations can be based as to what
was the money lost by Philip. II. in his
futile and exhaustive wars. it has been
calculated that when the Armada. was
dispersed there went down into the sea,
or there foundered off the coast of Ire
land, a fleet which had cost more money