od-will of the people over whom he presides. He has a twofold
object only in view: namely, to keep the revenue well up to the mark,
and to enrich himself as speedily as possible. The princely salary he
receives--fifty thousand dollars per annum, with a palace and
household attendants supplied--is but a portion of the income which,
by a system of peculation, he is enabled to divert to his private
coffers. As a rule, the Captain-General comes out to Cuba a poor man,
and returns a rich one, however brief his term of office.

Occasionally during the lapse of years a true and patriotic man has
filled this important post, when the remarkable elements of prosperity
contained within the limits of this peerless land were rapidly
developed and advanced. Such an one was Don Luis de las Casas, whose
name is cherished by all patriotic Cubans, as also is that of Don
Francisco de Arrango, an accomplished statesman and a native of
Havana. He was educated in Spain, and designed to follow the law as a
profession. This man, being thoroughly acquainted with the
possibilities of the island and the condition and wants of his
countrymen, succeeded in procuring the amelioration of some of the
most flagrant abuses of the colonial system. In his argument for
reform before the home government, he told them that serious dissent
permeated every class of the community, and was bid in return to
employ a still more stringent system of rule. To this Arrango replied
that force was not remedy, and that to effectually reform the
rebellious they must first reform the laws. His earnest reason carried
conviction, and finally won concession. By his exertions the staple
productions of the island were so much increased that the revenue, in
place of falling short of the expenses of the government as his
enemies had predicted, soon yielded a large surplus. He early raised
his voice against the iniquitous slave trade, and suggested the
introduction of white labor, though he admitted that the immediate and
wholesale abolition of slavery was impracticable. This was the rock on
which he split, as it regarded his influence with the Spaniards in
Cuba, that is, with the planters and rich property holders. Slavery
with them was a sine qua non. Many of them owned a thousand Africans
each, and the institution, as an arbitrary power as well as the means
of wealth, was ever dear to the Spanish heart. Former and subsequent
Captains-General not only secretly encouraged the cla