The occupancy of the British and colonial forces lasted but a few months.  Lord Albemarle, with $120,000 of the prize money as his personal share, received notice of the conclusion of the treaty of Paris and withdrew his army to Great Britain.  A single ship sufficed to remove the shattered remnant of the soldiers from Connecticut, the Jerseys, and New York.  Twenty-three hundred sailed; barely fifty returned.  It was a part of the good fortune of America—­all of the good fortune, to be exact—­which brought Colonel Israel Putnam safely home again, though the paralysis which shortened his labors not many years after the Declaration of Independence was unquestionably due to his exposure to the vertical sun of Cuba and to the poisons of its pestilential coast.

In the hands of George III., then King of England, all this suffering and deprivation amounted to virtually nothing.  He was a coward at heart, a man who could not even avail himself of such hardly gained victories.  The peace of Paris was signed, and by its terms George yielded up Cuba and the Philippines again to the power that has never ceased to misuse the advantages so obtained.

The belief gained ground in Havana, in 1807, that the English government again contemplated a descent on the island; and measures were taken to put it in a more respectable state of defense, although, from want of funds in the treasury, and the scarcity of indispensable supplies, the prospect of an invasion was sufficiently gloomy.  The militia and the troops of the garrison were carefully drilled, and companies of volunteers were formed wherever materials for them could be found.  The French, also, not content with mere preparations, made an actual descent on the island, first threatening Santiago, and afterwards landing at Batabano.

The invaders consisted chiefly of refugees from St. Domingo; and their intention seems to have been to take possession with a view to colonize and cultivate a portion of the unappropriated, or at least unoccupied, territory, on the south side of the island, as their countrymen had formerly done in St. Domingo.  Without recurring to actual force, the captain-general prevailed on them to take their departure by offering transportation either to St. Domingo or to France.

CHAPTER V.

Commercial development of Cuba.

Efforts of the Early Governors to Encourage Trade—­Cultivation of
Sugar One of the First Industries—­Decree Defining Powers of the
Captain General—­Attempted Annexation to the United States—­The
Ostend Manifesto—­Its Wonderful Predictions, in the Light of
Later Events—­Exports and Imports Between Cuba and Spain—­The
Future of Commercial Cuba.