CHAPTER XXIII.
HARASSED BY THE MILITARY—LAWLESS SITUATION—MEN DRIVEN TO THE
MOUNTAINS—RESTRICTED WALKS.
I returned from a flying visit of six weeks to New York, to find Lamo harassed by the exactions of the military almost beyond endurance. The insurrection in a remote southern part of the island had furnished excuses for innumerable taxes, forced loans, and impressments of horses and cattle from the planters in every district. We, of course, did not escape. There were war-taxes, church-taxes, taxes to repair bridges we had never heard of, and to make roads we could never travel. Uniformed men lighted down upon us almost daily, armed with orders we could not understand and which they could not explain. When Lamo resisted, he was politely informed that they had the power to seize negroes or sugar to the amount demanded. So it was when I returned Lamo was almost daft.
During my absence I chanced to spend a few days with friends in Connecticut, who gave me an elegantly engraved breakfast invitation they had previously received “to meet the President and Mrs. Grant.” I carried it home as a souvenir, and to show the latest style of invitation-cards, little dreaming what a valuable souvenir it would prove to be.
The next collector that called had the pleasure of meeting the señora just home from the States, and, before he had time to divulge his business, was shown the invitation. He evidently inferred I had been the recipient of numerous courtesies from that august quarter, in fact was on the most intimate terms with the occupants of the White House. Moreover, we assured him that our ideas of proper allegiance would not permit citizens of the United States to pay the war-taxes of a foreign government; that we had been cautioned to maintain strict neutrality with Spain and her colony, and much more to the same effect, quietly adding that assessment bills against Desengaño must be presented at the office of our merchant in Havana, to be approved, if necessary, by the American consul.
In our ignorance of the laws and customs of Spain and other despotic governments, and knowing full well the venality of all the officials we had any business with, we naturally entertained serious suspicions that we were being imposed upon.
Lamo actually worked himself into the belief that a lot of impecunious knaves masqueraded as tax-collectors, and raced to Desengaño every time they wanted money. About the time the elegant invitation was thumbed and soiled, letters of a purely personal nature began to arrive for my husband in the consul’s private mail-bag. “Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C., R. M. Douglas, Private Sec’y,” conspicuous on the official envelope. The innocent missives were laid away, but the envelopes were ostentatiously spread over the parlor-table and exhibited to visitors and officials, who regarded them as unmistakable evidence of our constant communication with the home government.
The ruse worked a miracle. We paid no more claims at the plantation, and very few were ever presented to our merchant.
Matters were rapidly assuming a more unsettled state, and in the lawless condition of affairs even life was becoming unsafe. Our fire-arms had not yet been restored to us; so, except Zell’s clumsy blunderbuss and Henry’s small shot-gun, we had nothing more formidable with which to defend ourselves than the swords worn by the mayorals.
The order to disarm all civilians was deemed necessary by the Government, as it closed one avenue of supply availed of by the insurgents.
The tax-collectors, not content with all they could wrest from the wealthy planters, were driven by the exigencies of insurrectionary trouble to seek every possible means of raising money, and at length invaded the sitios of the poor and lazy guajiros, where often there was nothing but a horse that could be levied upon, and their horses were as dear to them as their children.
No doubt many a man would have remained quietly at home but for the threatened seizure of his prized animal. To save this he fled to the fastnesses of the mountains and hid in caves, often drifting gradually into a lawless life. The guajiros earned from seventeen to twenty-five dollars a month during the busy winter season. It is pitiful to call these meager monthly earnings by the comprehensive title of income; but the tax-collectors now began to claim that a percentage of all wages must be paid into the government coffers.
Several brothers, who owned a few acres of land adjoining us, were dependents on our estate. For years they had been employed as teamsters by the former owners, and we continued to hire them. So exasperated were they at the demand for a portion of their incomes that they refused to work. Earning barely sufficient at best for their modest needs, if they had to divide with the tax-collector, they might as well strike, not for higher wages, but for no work. Hundreds acted in this way, finally becoming utterly idle, hopeless, and miserable. In many instances desperation drove them to follow an abandoned, vicious career on the road.
Soon our doctor, who on account of his calling was allowed the special privilege of carrying arms, came on his errand of mercy, followed by a lusty attendant, and had to disembarrass himself of a belt and sword, and remove the formidable pistols from his holsters, preparatory to visiting the bedside of his patient. It was not safe for him to travel, even in broad daylight, without these preparations for defense, and no emergency ever called him out after nightfall.
Ellie and I were repeatedly warned not to walk over the fields or up the mountain-side, as had been our daily custom, so our promenades were gradually confined to the broad avenue in full view of the house.