72 



humboldt's cuba. 



In conjunction with these measures, the white 

 inhabitants were disarmed, the officers of the gov- 

 ernment collecting all the arms in possession of pri- 

 vate citizens. The popular ferment which followed 

 these measures alarmed General Pezuela, and on the 

 30th May, he issued his celebrated retracting pro- 

 clamation, announcing that the government would 

 not interfere with the social institutions of the coun- 

 try, for "that unhappy race which comprehends 

 freedom to be vagrancy, * * * once placed among 

 civilized men, protected by religion, and by the 

 great laws of our fathers, is, in its so-called slavery, 

 a thousand times more happy than other classes in 

 Europe, which have freedom only in name." The 

 press, too, was silenced, and although ' General 

 Pezuela ceased from that time to initiate the new 

 policy, the public alarm did not subside. The home 

 government, fearing to lose its colony, at a time 

 when its allies were too much engrossed by the diffi- 

 culties of the war in the East to assist it, removed 

 him, and confided to General Concha, for the second 

 time, the government of Cuba. 



The critical circumstances of the colony at this 

 period, induced the court to grant more extraordinary 

 powers to the new captain-general, than had been 

 held by any of his predecessors. The heads of the 

 Treasury and Marine departments, which were for- 



