The inhabitants were to be protected
in all their rights, and might go or stay, as they should think best for
their interest. There were other liberal provisions made, indicative of
a desire on the part of the conquerors to behave handsomely toward the
conquered. The only portion of the property of the King of Spain which
the victors allowed him to retain consisted of his slaves, of which he
was left at liberty to dispose as he might think proper. England was
then a slave-holding and a slave-trading nation, and she could not
afford to set the example of disregarding the right of man to hold
property in men. Though the age of cotton had not then dawned, the age
of conscience was quite as far below the moral horizon.

Besides the Havana and its immediate territory, the terms of the
surrender placed in the hands of the English as much of the island of
Cuba as extended one hundred and eighty miles to the west, which
belonged to the government of the place. This was a great conquest, and
it was in the power of the conquerors to become masters of the whole
island.

The most remarkable fact connected with the conquest of Cuba was the
success with which the English contended, not only against a valiant
enemy, but against the difficulties of climate. No severer trial was
ever presented to troops than that which they encountered and overcame
on the Cuban coast at a time of the year when that coast is at its
worst; and it was a much more unhealthy quarter then than it is to-day.
They had to bear up against drought, heat, hunger, thirst, sickness, and
the fire of the Spaniards; and they stood in constant danger of being
separated from their supporting fleet, which had no sufficient shelter,
and might have been destroyed, if a tropical hurricane had set in. Yet
against all these evils they bore up, and, with very inferior means,
succeeded in accomplishing their purpose, and in making one of the
greatest conquests of the most brilliant war in which their country ever
was engaged. All this they did with but little loss, comparatively
speaking. They had 346 men and officers killed or mortally wounded; 620
wounded; 691 died from sickness or fatigue; and 130 were missing. This
loss, 1790 in all, exclusive of the casualties on shipboard, cannot be
considered large, for it could not have been above one-eighth part of
the invading force, counting the reinforcements that arrived while the
siege was going on. Compared with the enormous loss