GEOGRAPHIC SUBDIVISIONS 67 



orders. Taxation grew from year to year, and persecution 

 of the Creole Cubans increased. The Spaniards meanwhile 

 profitably prosecuted the slave-trade, notwithstanding that 

 the importation of Africans was forbidden by the law of 

 1820. In 1848 many arrests were made on suspicion of a 

 plot among the slaves about Matanzas against the white 

 people. Officers of the permanent military commission 

 closely examined many persons ; but, as interrogation failed 

 to fix responsibility, the prosecution resorted to torture 

 and the block, flogging the unwilling witnesses, who were 

 stretched head downward on a ladder. This process, first 

 applied to slaves, soon extended to the free colored people, 

 and then to the whites. The commission executed, con- 

 demned to hard labor, banished, and imprisoned 3076 people. 

 This iniquitous proceeding was the cause of the first revo- 

 lutionary movements led by General Narciso Lopez in 1849, 

 of the expeditions of 1850 and 1851, and of Quitman's ex- 

 pedition of 1855. 



After 1851 a party the forerunner of the present Au- 

 tonomistssprang up, desirous of coming to a settlement 

 to insure the rights of the colony without impairing the 

 interests of Spain. After protracted efforts it succeeded 

 in obtaining an inquiry at Madrid into the reforms needed 

 by Cuba ; but the only alteration decreed was a new system 

 of taxation, more oppressive than the former. 



After the suppression of the revolts in 1855 another brief 

 era of prosperity was inaugurated, and continued until the 

 great insurrection of 1868, which lasted ten years. Spanish 

 losses during this decade, as reported at the office at Madrid, 

 were 208,000 men; Spain's forces against the insurgents, 

 257,000 men; Cuban losses, from 40,000 to 50,000 men. 

 The outlay on both sides was $300,000,000, while the value 

 of property destroyed amounted to an equal sum. 



At the close of this devastating war Cuba had almost 

 gained her freedom; but, seduced by the diplomacy of 

 Spain, the care-worn leaders laid down their arms under 

 promises of autonomy and self-government similar to those 



