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The British and Provincial Conquest of Cuba: Island

It was a great victory-an awful sum of wretchedness. Thousands of young men perished, and the Island was tossed over to Spain as though it had not on it the costly stain of the English and American blood-shed there, it seemed, for prize money only.

The lowest estimate of the plunder of Havana is $14,000,000, but the poor men got a lean share and the great chiefs were enriched. Colonel Cleveland, who commanded the artillery, selected the church bells for an item of plunder, and the bishop protested to Albemarle, who replied that, "when a city was besieged and taken, the commander of the artillery receives a gratification, and that Colonel Cleveland had made the demand with his lordship's concurrence." The bishop offered to redeem the bells one thousand dollars, and the colonel named thirty thousand as his price-but Albemarle thought ten thousand would do-and the bells were ordered taken down. Then the bishop paid the "gratification," and the bells still are ringing. Albemarle concluded he wanted more money and wrote this polite note to the venerable bishop: MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SIR:-I am sorry to be under the necessity of writing to your lordship what ought to have been thought of some days ago, namely, a donation from the church to the commander-in-chief of the victorious army. The least that your lordship can offer will be one hundred thousand dollars. I wish to live in peace with your lordship and with the church, as I have shown in all that has hitherto occured, and I hope that your lordship will not give me reason to alter my intentions. I kiss your lordship's hand. Your humble servant, As the bishop could not pay, and threatened appeal to the courts of England, Albemarle issued a proclamation declaring "that the conduct of the bishop was seditious; that he had forgotton that he was now a subject of Great Britain; and that it was absolutely necessary he should be expelled from the Island, and sent to Florida in one of the British ships of war, in order that tranquillity might be maintained, and that good correspondence and harmony might continue between the new and the old subjects of the king, which the conduct of the bishop had visibly interrupted." Many remember Albemarle in Havana well, and hate him yet. He not only had a monstrous appetite for money-he so misused a church-made a stable of it, the Spaniards say, that it was so defiled it has never been reconsecrated. It it is a solemn stone affair-with a grim steeple that was thought a few years ago to be leaning and dangerous, but it bore itself so stiffly it could not be pulled down, and the conclusion was it must be perpendicular; and so it stands and is regarded as a monument of the English occupation that should be a reproach to any people. There is no episode of our colonial history more impressive as showing the martial and adventurous character of the people, and their union with the English in national spirit and sympathy, than the important part they took, with hearty good will and cheer, in their most timely and powerful reinforcement of the Havana expedition, that culminated in a glorious feat of arms, but terminated in a prize-money scandal, and an outbreak of frightfully fatal disease, and the ridiculous, uncalled-for resubmission of the inestimable Island to Spain with a long train, not yet ended, of lamentable consequences. Unfortunately the records are so imperfect that the story can only be presented in fragments.