The terms granted by the English were honorable to both parties.  The Spanish troops marched out with all the honors of war.  The officers were allowed to preserve all their personal effects.  Civil officers were permitted to remain on the island, or to leave it, as they should elect.  Everything that belonged to the Spanish army or navy, that was within the limits of the territory surrendered, became prize of war.  The Catholic religion was to be maintained in all its force, but the nomination of all religious functionaries was to be subject to the approval of the English Governor.  The inhabitants were to be protected in all their rights, and might go or stay, as they should think best for their interest.  There were other liberal provisions made, indicative of a desire on the part of the conquerors to behave handsomely toward the conquered.  The only portion of the property of the King of Spain which the victors allowed him to retain consisted of his slaves, of which he was left at liberty to dispose as he might think proper.  England was then a slave-holding and a slave-trading nation, and she could not afford to set the example of disregarding the right of man to hold property in men.  Though the age of cotton had not then dawned, the age of conscience was quite as far below the moral horizon.

Besides the Havana and its immediate territory, the terms of the surrender placed in the hands of the English as much of the island of Cuba as extended one hundred and eighty miles to the west, which belonged to the government of the place.  This was a great conquest, and it was in the power of the conquerors to become masters of the whole island.

The most remarkable fact connected with the conquest of Cuba was the success with which the English contended, not only against a valiant enemy, but against the difficulties of climate.  No severer trial was ever presented to troops than that which they encountered and overcame on the Cuban coast at a time of the year when that coast is at its worst; and it was a much more unhealthy quarter then than it is to-day.  They had to bear up against drought, heat, hunger, thirst, sickness, and the fire of the Spaniards; and they stood in constant danger of being separated from their supporting fleet, which had no sufficient shelter, and might have been destroyed, if a tropical hurricane had set in.  Yet against all these evils they bore up, and, with very inferior means, succeeded in accomplishing their purpose, and in making one of the greatest conquests of the most brilliant war in which their country ever was engaged.  All this they did with but little loss, comparatively speaking.  They had 346 men and officers killed or mortally wounded; 620 wounded; 691 died from sickness or fatigue; and 130 were missing.  This loss, 1790 in all, exclusive of the casualties on shipboard, cannot be considered large, for it could not have been above one-eighth part of the invading force, counting the reinforcements