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CUBA 553 creased largely. In 1763 the Gaceta de la Ha- 1>ana was started, and a post office department was established. In 1767 the Jesuits were expelled from Cuba, as from the rest of the Spanish dominions. Under the administration of Las Casas, which began in 1790, Cuba made rapid progress in commercial prosperity and in public improvements. He developed all branches of industry, fostered the patriotic societies, and permitted the establishment of newspapers. By his judicious government the tranquillity of the island was maintained during the time of the revolution in Santo Domingo. In 1808, when the royal family of Spain was deposed by Napoleon, the Cubans declared for the crown, and proved their loyalty by numerous voluntary subscriptions, by the publication of vehement pamphlets, and by sending their sons to fight. But scarcely any of the promises made to them were fulfilled. Since that time the island has been ruled by a succession of captains general from Spain, some of whom have tried to advance the interests of the people, but the most of whom have done little else than make fortunes for themselves. The government has been generally of the most oppressive character, and if the island has advanced in prosperity, it has been in spite of all the obstacles which mismanagement could invent. In 1825 the royal order of the omnimodas was sent to Cuba, but it was not ratified till 1836; it empowered the captain general to rule at all times as if the island were in a state of siege. In March of the latter year a permanent military commission was established, which took cognizance of even or- dinary offences, but particularly of all offences involving disloyalty. Previous to 1810 no one had ever been executed in Cuba for a political offence. In that year Jose K. Aleman, an emis- sary of Joseph Bonaparte, was hanged in Ha- vana. In the years 1845 to 1847 the slave trade was nearly brought to an end through the en- ergy of Captain General Valdez. But the in- creased consumption of sugar in Great Britain, in consequence of the reduction of duty, and the placing of foreign and British sugars on the same footing, afterward gave a new stimulus to the traffic. The efforts of the Spanish of- ficials for its suppression were relaxed, and it attained a height greater than ever before. There has been more or less discontent in Cuba since the beginning of the present century, but the project of annexation to the United States was not mooted until the French republic was proclaimed in 1848. The United States, after the acquisition of Florida, began to take a deep interest in the future of the island. Fears were entertained that it might fall into the hands of the English or French, and Spain and those nations were informed that such a dis- position of it would never be consented to. Its contiguity to the coasts of the United States and its position at the entrance of the gulf of Mexico, surrounded by 12 different nationalities, give it an importance which could not be disre- garded. The American government expressed its willingness that it should remain a Spanish colony, but averred that it would never permit it to pass into other foreign hands. On this prin- ciple the American government opposed the contemplated invasion of Bolivar, and urged Spain to make peace with the Spanish Ameri- can republics in order to save Cuba from a change in her political and social system. In 1825 a proposition was made by Spain that in consideration of certain commercial conces- sions the United States should guarantee to her the possession of Cuba ; but it was declined on the ground that such a course was contrary to the established policy of the United States. In 1848 President Polk authorized the Ameri- can minister at Madrid to offer $100,000,000 for Cuba; but the proposition was rejected in the most peremptory manner. In 1849 Nar- ciso Lopez, a native Venezuelan, but who had lived long in Cuba, where he had been in the Spanish military service, came to the United States with a number of Cubans, having been implicated in revolutionary movements. He represented the Creole population as dissatisfied with Spanish rule and ready for revolt and annexation to the United States. Recruits were collected for a descent upon the island. The first expedition, in 1849, was defeated by the vigilance of the United States authorities. A second attempt was made in 1850, and a landing effected at Cardenas ; but it resulted in failure, and the party were driven to sea. In August, 1851, Lopez sailed from New Or- leans in a steamer with 500 men, and landed at Morillo in the Vuelta Abajo. The ex- pected uprising of the people did not take place, many of his men were killed in the en- gagements, 50 captured with Col. Crittenden were shot in Havana, and the survivors, who with their leader had taken refuge in the woods, were soon made prisoners. Lopez was gar- roted in Havana Sept. 1 ; some others of his comrades were shot, but most of the survivors were transported and subsequently pardoned. In 1852 President Fillmore refused to join with France and Great Britain in a treaty guaran- teeing to Spain the possession of Cuba. This rendered the Spanish government more alert in guarding against revolution within and ex- peditions from without, and led to occasional collisions with American citizens. The firing on the American steamer Black Warrior by a Spanish vessel of war, during the administra- tion of President Pierce, threatened at one time to lead to hostilities. Since then the ques- tion of the acquisition of Cuba has entered fre- quently into American politics. In August, 1854, Messrs. Buchanan, Mason, and Soule, United States ministers at London, Paris, and Madrid respectively, held a conference at Ostend and Aix-la-Chapelle and drew up a statement pop- ularly known as the Ostend manifesto. In this document they argued that Cuba ought to be- long to the United States, and that Spain would find its sale to be highly advantageous; and