Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Island, With Relation To
Its Political And Military Government, Is Divided Into Two Goviernos,
Depending On The Same Capitan-General.
The govierno of the Havannah
comprehends, besides the capital, the district of the Quatro Villas
(Trinidad, Santo Espiritu, Villa Clara and San Juan de los Remedios)
and the district of Puerto Principe.
The Capitan-general y Gobernador
of the Havannah has the privilege of appointing a lieutenant in Puerto
Principe (Teniente Gobernador), as also at Trinidad and Nueva
Filipina. The territorial jurisdiction of the capitan-general extends,
as the jurisdiction of a corregidor, to eight pueblos de Ayuntamiento
(the ciudades of Matanzas, Jaruco, San Felipe y Santiago, Santa Maria
del Rosario; the villas of Guanabacoa, Santiago de las Vegas, Guines,
and San Antonio de los Banos). The govierno of Cuba comprehends
Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa, Holguin and Bayamo. The present limits of
the goviernos are not the same as those of the bishoprics. The
district of Puerto Principe, with its seven parishes, for instance,
belonged till 1814 to the govierno of the Havannah and the
archbishopric of Cuba. In the enumerations of 1817 and 1820 we find
Puerto Principe joined with Baracoa and Bayamo, in the jurisdiction of
Cuba. It remains for me to speak of a third division altogether
financial. By the cedula of the 23rd March, 1812, the island was
divided into three Intendencias or Provincias; those of the Havannah,
Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba, of which the respective length
from east to west is about ninety, seventy and sixty-five sea-leagues.
The intendant of the Havannah retains the prerogatives of
Superintendente general subdelegado de Real Hacienda de la Isla de
Cuba. According to this division, the Provincia de Cuba comprehends
Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa, Holguin, Bayamo, Gibara, Manzanillo,
Jiguani, Cobre, and Tiguaros; the Provincia de Puerto Principe, the
town of that name, Nuevitas, Jagua, Santo Espiritu, San Juan de los
Remedios, Villa de Santa Clara and Trinidad. The most westerly
intendencia, or Provincia de la Havannah, occupies all that part
situated west of the Quatro Villas, of which the intendant of the
capital has lost the financial administration. When the cultivation of
the land shall be more uniformly advanced, the division of the island
into five departments, namely: the vuelta de abaxo (from Cape San
Antonio to the fine village of Guanajay and Mariel), the Havannah
(from Mariel to Alvarez), the Quintas Villas (from Alvarez to Moron),
Puerto Principe (from Moron to Rio Cauto), and Cuba (from Rio Cauto to
Punta Maysi), will perhaps appear the most fit, and most consistent
with the historical remembrances of the early times of the Conquest.
My map of the island of Cuba, however imperfect it may be for the
interior, is yet the only one on which are marked the thirteen
ciudades; and also seven villas, which are included in the divisions I
have just enumerated. The boundary between the two bishoprics (linea
divisoria de los dos obispados de la Havana y de Santiago de Cuba)
extends from the mouth of the small river of Santa Maria (longitude 80
degrees 49 minutes), on the southern coast, by the parish of San
Eugenio de la Palma, and by the haciendas of Santa Anna, Dos Hermanos,
Copey, and Cienega, to La Punta de Judas (longitude 80 degrees 46
minutes) on the northern coast opposite Cayo Romano. During the regime
of the Spanish Cortes it was agreed that this ecclesiastical limit
should be also that of the two Deputaciones provinciales of the
Havannah and of Santiago. (Guia Constitucional de la isla de Cuba,
1822 page 79). The diocese of the Havannah comprehends forty, and that
of Cuba twenty-two, parishes. Having been established at a time when
the greater part of the island was occupied by farms of cattle
(haciendas de ganado), these parishes are of too great extent, and
little adapted to the requirements of present civilization. The
bishopric of Santiago de Cuba contains the five cities of Baracoa,
Cuba, Holguin, Guiza, Puerto Principe and the Villa of Bayamo. In the
bishopric of San Cristoval de la Havannah are included the eight
cities of the Havannah, namely: Santa Maria del Rosario, San Antonio
Abad or de los Banos, San Felipe y Santiago del Bejucal, Matanzas,
Jaruco, La Paz and Trinidad, and the six villas of Guanabacoa, namely:
Santiago de las Vegas or Compostela, Santa Clara, San Juan de los
Remedios, Santo Espiritu and S. Julian de los Guines. The territorial
division most in favour among the inhabitants of the Havannah, is that
of vuelta de arriba and de abaxo, east and west of the meridian of the
Havannah. The first governor of the island who took the title of
Captain-general (1601) was Don Pedro Valdes. Before him there were
sixteen other governors, of whom the series begins with the famous
Poblador and Conquistador, Diego Velasquez, native of Cuellar, who was
appointed by Columbus in 1511.
In the island of Cuba free men compose 0.64 of the whole population;
and in the English islands, scarcely 0.19. In the whole archipelago of
the West Indies the copper-coloured men (blacks and mulattos, free and
slaves) form a mass of 2,360,000, or 0.83 of the total population. If
the legislation of the West Indies and the state of the men of colour
do not shortly undergo a salutary change; if the legislation continue
to employ itself in discussion instead of action, the political
preponderance will pass into the hands of those who have strength to
labour, will to be free, and courage to endure long privations. This
catastrophe will ensue as a necessary consequence of circumstances,
without the intervention of the free blacks of Hayti, and without
their abandoning the system of insulation which they have hitherto
followed. Who can venture to predict the influence which may be
exercised on the politics of the New World by an African Confederation
of the free states of the West Indies, situated between Columbia,
North America, and Guatimala? The fear of this event may act more
powerfully on the minds of many, than the principles of humanity and
justice; but in every island the whites believe that their power is
not to be shaken.
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