f the ruling vices of the common
people. He encouraged it, established cockpits in every town and
instituted the carnival games. He also established the feast of San
Juan, which lasted, and still lasts, the whole month of June; and
when some respectable people, Insulars as well as Peninsulars,
protested against this official propaganda of vice and idleness, he
replied: "Let them be--while they dance and gamble they don't
conspire; ... these people must be governed by three B's--Barraja,
Botella, and Berijo." [54] General Pezuela, a man of liberal
disposition and literary attainments,[55] stigmatized the people of
Puerto Rico as a people without faith, without thought, and without
religion, and, though he afterward did something for the intellectual
development of the inhabitants, in the beginning of his administration
(1848-1851) thought it expedient not to discourage cock-fighting, but
regulated it.

In 1865 gambling was public and universal. In the capital there was a
gambling-house in almost every street. One in the upper story of the
house at the corner of San Francisco and Cruz Streets, kept by an
Italian, was crowded day and night. The bank could be distinctly seen
from the Plaza, and the noise, the oaths, the foul language, mixing
with the chink of money distinctly heard. When the governor's
attention (General Felix Messina) was called to the scandalous
exhibition, his answer was: "Let them gamble, ... while they are at it
they will not occupy themselves with politics, and if they get ruined
it is for the benefit of others."

This systematic villification of the people completely neutralized
the effect of the measures adopted from time to time by progressist
governors, such as the Count of Mirasol, Norzagaray, Cotoner, and
Pavia, and not even the revolution of September, 1868, materially
affected the disgraceful condition of affairs in the island. Only
those who paid twenty-five pesos direct contribution had the right of
suffrage. The press remained subject to previous censorship, its
principal function being to swing the incense-burner; the right of
public reunion was unknown, and if known would have been
impracticable; the majority of the respectable citizens lived under
constant apprehension lest they should be secretly accused of
disloyalty and prosecuted. Rumors of conspiracies, filibustering
expeditions, clandestine introductions of arms, and attempts at
insurrection were the order of the day. Every Libe