word, particularly that
of her majesty Isabella II. In her name a full pardon was offered to
Armenteros and his associates, who raised the cry of independence in
Trinidad, and this document effected the purpose for which it was
designed. Armenteros and the others, who placed reliance in the royal
word, were, some of them, shot, and the rest deported to African
dungeons. No reliance can be placed on the loyalty of the vast majority
of the vigorous citizens (unless the negroes alone are comprehended
under this phrase), when the whites are deprived of arms for the defence
of their country, and men are fined five pesos for carrying canes of a
larger size than can be readily introduced into a gun-barrel, and free
people of color are alone admitted into the ranks of the troops. The
Cubans are not relied upon, since, to prevent their joining Lopez, all
the roads were blockaded, and everybody found on them shot; and the
immense number of exiles does not prove the majority which favors the
government to be so prodigious.

"The value of the powerful navy and well-trained army of the island was
shown in the landing of Lopez, and the victories that three hundred men
constantly obtained over an army of seven thousand, dispersing only when
ammunition failed them. Hurricanes and the yellow fever are most
melancholy arms of defence; and, if they only injured the enemy, the
Spaniards, who are as much exposed as other Europeans to the fatal
influence, would be the true enemies of Cuba."

The following remarks on the present condition and prospects of the
island are translated from a letter written by an intelligent Creole,
thoroughly conversant with its affairs:

"The whites tremble for their existence and property; no one thinks
himself secure; confidence has ceased, and with it credit; capitalists
have withdrawn their money from circulation; the banks of deposit have
suspended their discounts; premiums have reached a fabulous point for
the best of paper. The government was not ignorant that this would be
the result, and prepared to get out of the momentary crisis by the
project of a bank,[12] published in the _Gaceta_ of the 4th (May); but
the most needy class, in the present embarrassed circumstances, is that
of the planters; and it is necessary, to enable them to fulfil their
engagements, that their notes should be made payable at the end of the
year,--that is, from harvest to harvest,--and not at the end of six
months, as provide