16 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



Institute of Camaguey, Class in Algebra and Arithmetic 



and disputes resulted until 1842. The practical value of the institute, however, was 

 insignificant, as it furnished merely a background for boast on the part of Spain that 

 her civilization had been carried to this side of the ocean, and on the part of the Cubans 

 that they were advancing in science and art. 



It will be noted from the above that the schools in which free education was given 

 were practically entirely lacking, but during this long period of years the realization of 

 the need of elementary public instruction was becoming more firmly fixed among Cuba's 

 people, and the existence of this feeling was becoming more deeply impressed upon the 

 Governors sent over from Spain. With the rule of one of these. Don Luis de las Casas, 

 a name remembered gratefully by all thinking Cubans, began the second epoch in the 

 educational history of Cuba. The first literary periodical was founded by him, as also 

 the Sociedad Economica de la Habana, which since has been the prime mover in every 

 advance in the material welfare and education of the Island. He was assisted in this 

 important work by Dr. Romay; Arango, the distinguished writer on economics; Caballero; 

 Peiialver, archbishop of Guatemala; and many others. The influence of this society 

 was such that a royal order soon gave it the charge of education in Cuba. An investigation 

 carried out in 1793 by this Society showed that only thirty-nine schools, thirty-two of 

 which were for girls, existed in the City of Havana, furnishing only the poorest of 

 instruction, practically nothing but reading in many of them, and in many instances in 

 charge of colored women. Through the work of this Society the first step in 

 advance was made by founding in the city two free schools for the poor of both sexes. 

 Difficulties and opposition were met and overcome, resulting in the establishment, with 

 the help of the religious orders, of the school of the Beneficencia in 1799 and the Ursulines 

 in 1803. But outside the City of Havana public gratuitous instruction for the people 

 was non-existent, except in a few cases where through individual effort, largely of the 



