ular current, and
introducing a liberal and mild system of government, drew the reins yet
tighter, and even curtailed many of the privileges formerly accorded to
the Cubans. It is a blind persistence in the fated principle of despotic
domination which has relaxed the moral and political bonds uniting the
two countries, instilled gall into the hearts of the governed, and
substituted the dangerous obedience of terror for the secure loyalty of
love. This severity of the home government has given rise to several
attempts to throw off the Spanish yoke.

The first occurred in 1823, when the Liberator, Simon Bolivar, offered
to aid the disaffected party by throwing an invading force into the
island. The conspiracy then formed, by the aid of the proffered
expedition, for which men were regularly enlisted and enrolled, would
undoubtedly have ended in the triumph of the insurrection, had it not
been discovered and suppressed prematurely, and had not the governments
of the United States, Great Britain and France, intervened in favor of
Spain. In 1826 some Cuban emigrants, residing in Caraccas, attempted a
new expedition, which failed, and caused the imprisonment and execution
of two patriotic young men, Don Francisco de Agueero, y Velazco, and Don
Bernabe Sanchez, sent to raise the department of the interior. In 1828
there was a yet more formidable conspiracy, known as _El Aguila Negra_
(the black eagle). The efforts of the patriots proved unavailing, foiled
by the preparation and power of the government, which seems to be
apprised by spies of every intended movement for the cause of liberty in
Cuba.

We have alluded to the revolution of La Granja, in Spain, and we have
now briefly to consider its effects on the island of Cuba, then under
the sway of General Don Miguel Tacon. We shall have occasion to refer
more than once, in the course of our records of the island, to the
administration of Tacon; for he made his mark upon Cuba, and, though he
governed it with an iron hand and a stern will, as we shall see, yet he
did much to improve its physical condition, even as Louis Napoleon,
despot though he be, has already vastly beautified and improved the
sanitary condition of the city of Paris.

The first place on the island which received intelligence of the
revolution of La Granja, and the oath to the constitution of 1812 by the
Queen-Regent of Spain, was Santiago de Cuba, the capital of the eastern
department. It was then commanded