tury. Governors came and went,
some very good and others very bad. There were a hundred of them from 1512
to 1866, and thirty-six more from 1866 to 1899, the average term of service
for the entire number being a little less than three years. On the whole,
the most notable of the group of 19th Century incumbents was Don Miguel
Tacon, who ruled from June 1, 1834, until April 16, 1838. His record would
seem to place him quite decidedly in the "reactionary" class, but he was a
man of action who left behind him monuments that remain to his credit even
now. One historian, Mr. Kimball, who wrote in 1850, describes him as one
in whom short-sightedness, narrow views, and jealous and weak mind, were
joined to an uncommon stubbornness of character. Another, Mr. M.M. Ballou,
says that "probably of all the governors-general that have filled the post
in Cuba none is better known abroad, or has left more monuments to his
enterprise, than Tacon. His reputation at Havana (this was written 1854) is
of a somewhat doubtful character; for, though he followed out with energy
various improvements, yet his modes of procedure were so violent that he
was an object of terror to the people generally, rather than of gratitude.
He vastly improved the appearance of the capital and its vicinity, built
the new prison, rebuilt the governor's palace, constructed a military road
to the neighboring forts, erected a spacious theatre and market house,
arranged a new public walk, and opened a vast parade ground without the
city walls, thus laying the foundation of the new city which has now sprung
up in this formerly desolate suburb. He suppressed the gaming houses and
rendered the streets, formerly infested with robbers, as secure as those of
Boston or New York." Another writer, Mr. Samuel Hazard, in 1870, says: "Of
all the governors who have been in command of the island Governor Tacon
seems to have been the best, doing the most to improve the island, and
particularly Havana; making laws, punishing offences, and establishing some
degree of safety for its inhabitants. It is reported of him that he is
said, like the great King Alfred, to have promised the Cubans that they
should be able to leave their purses of money on the public highway without
fear of having them stolen. At all events, his name is cherished by every
Cuban for the good he has done, and _paseos_, theatres, and monuments bear
his great name in Havana." The Tacon theatre is now the Nacional, and t