To show how little liberty of opinion the newspapers of Cuba enjoy, we quote a decree issued by General Weyler, formerly Captain-General of the island: 

Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, Marquis of Tenerife, governor-general, captain-general of the Island of Cuba, and general-in-chief of this army.

Under the authority of the law of public order, dated the 23rd of April, 1870.

I Order and Command,

1st.  No newspaper shall publish any news concerning the war which is not authorized by the staff officers.

2nd.  Neither shall be published any telegraphic communications of a political character without the authority given by the secretary of the governor general in Havana, or by the civil officers in the other provinces.

3rd.  It is hereby forbidden to publish any editorials, or other articles or illustrations, which may directly or indirectly tend to lessen the prestige of the mother-country, the army, or the authorities, or to exaggerate the forces and the importance of the insurrection, or in any way to favor the latter, or to cause unfounded alarm, or excite the feelings of the people.

4th.  The infractions of this decree, not included in Articles first and sixth of the decree of February 16th last, will make the offenders liable to the penalties named in Article 36, of the law of the 23rd of April, 1870.

5th.  All persons referred to in Article 14 of the Penal Code of the Peninsula, which is in force in this Island, will be held responsible for said infractions in the same order as established by the said Article.

6th.  Whenever a newspaper has twice incurred the penalty of said offense, and shall give cause for a third penalty, it may be then suppressed.

7th.  The civil governors are in charge of the fulfillment of this decree, and against their resolutions, which must be always well founded, the interested parties may appeal within twenty-four hours following their notification.

Valeriano Weyler.

Havana, April 27, 1896.

Population of the island.

Conflicting accounts render it impossible to arrive at anything like a certainty as to the number of inhabitants in Cuba at the time of its conquest, but it may be estimated at from 300,000 to 400,000.  There is but little doubt, however, that before 1560 the whole of this population had disappeared from the island.  The first census was taken in 1774, when the population was 171,620.  In 1791 it was 272,300.

Owing to the disturbed condition of the island, no census of the inhabitants has been taken since that of 1887, when the total population was 1,631,687.  Of this number, 1,111,303 were whites, and 520,684 were of negro blood.  These figures make questionable the claim that the war for liberty is simply an insurrection of the colored against the Caucasian race.

CHAPTER IX.