for the securing of the same rights for the
colonists that their fellow subjects in the British Isles enjoyed. But
the Cubans resolved upon separation from Spain not only years but at
least two full generations before they were able to achieve it.

This spirit belongs to a much later date in Cuban history than that of
which we are now writing, and to refer to it here is an act of
anticipation. But it is desirable to some extent to scan the end from
the beginning; to see from the outset to what end we shall come as well
as to see at the end from what beginning we have come. Moreover, it
cannot be too well remembered that even as soon as the latter part of
the sixteenth century the people of Cuba regarded themselves as Cubans,
and so called themselves, and had begun the cultivation of a social
order and a sentiment of patriotism quite distinct from though not yet
necessarily antagonistic to that of Spain.

The transition from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century was marked,
then, with a significant change in the temper and character of Cuba,
especially by a great accession of the spirit of insular integrity and
independence. While Spain was great and apparently growing greater,
there was a gratifying pride in identification with her. But when her
decline began, and showed signs of being as rapid as her rise had been,
that pride waned, and there began to arise in its place a pride in Cuba,
or perhaps we might say at that early date a determination to develop in
Cuba cause for pride. From that time forward Cuba was destined to be
more American than European; and though for nearly three centuries she
might continue to be a European possession, yet her lot was decided.
Unconsciously, perhaps, but not the less surely she was drawn into the
irresistible current which was drawing all the American settlements away
from the European planters of them. It was one of the interesting
eccentricities of history that the first important land acquired by
Spain in the western hemisphere should be the last to leave her sway;
and that the first European colonists in America to have cause for
complaint against their overlords should be the longest to suffer and
the last to secure abatement of their wrongs. Such is the reflection
caused by consideration of this first era in the history of the Queen of
the Antilles.

THE END OF VOLUME ONE

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INDEX

Abarzuza, Sr. proposes reforms f