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c h a p t e r f i v e In a Common Catastrophe All Men Should Be Brothers B y the summer of 1776, the disenchantment so pronounced in the correspondence between Captain General de la Torre and treasury official Eligio de la Puente was symptomatic of the problems that would compel a new approach toward colonial affairs. The question of how to deal with the economic malaise generated by bad weather and the ensuing environmental crisis, the consequences of which had spread throughout Spain’s empire, occupied the full attention of royal officials.1 The political setting exacerbated rather than alleviated the problems at hand. In 1775, Spain suffered another and more significant military defeat in Algeria in North Africa. Poor planning and poor leadership caused the deaths of over 1,500 young Spanish soldiers, and the resulting public outrage forced a reorganization in Charles III’s advisory councils.2 The reorganization brought some of the most talented, experienced, and visionary men to positions of influence, among them José de Gálvez, who became the minister of the Indies in February 1776.3 That same year, Spain and Portugal were on the verge of going to war, which threatened to involve Great Britain in defense of its Portuguese ally.4 This potential conflict was hastily settled when the queen of Portugal, sister of Charles III, made an unusual journey to Madrid to consult with her brother, after which Spain retreated from its belligerent position.5 Before it was certain that war would be averted, Spain began a troop buildup in the Americas, and as always, Cuba was affected by the arrival of another wave of peninsular soldiers, increasing the demand on the already-overtaxed provisioning system.6 As had occurred in the 1760s, the weather did not cooperate with European plans. The suffering and misery during the first half of the 1770s dragged on into the latter half of the decade as the El Niño/La Niña cycle did not subside, as it had done in decades past. The turbulent weather dur- 124 • in a common catastrophe ing fall 1775 through summer 1776 that ravaged eastern Cuba (discussed in the previous chapter) was no less severe in and around Havana. In early June, storms wracked the southern coast. The hamlet of Batabanó, which had sustained considerable damage in the hurricanes of 1768 and 1772, was again devastated. The barracks and stables built to lodge the men and their horses as part of the heightened defense posture became the first casualties . Wind and rising water completely destroyed the structures so recently rebuilt after the hurricanes of 1772, and the floodwater surged inland, ruining subsistence crops in the area.7 The intendant of the army, Juan Ignacio de Urriza, ordered the captain of the closest area not damaged by the storm to transfer provisions and rebuilding supplies to Batabanó, “so that the troops and horses do not suffer any losses or discomfort.”8 The same storm that damaged the south coast of Cuba caused catastrophic results in Jamaica at a time when conditions on the British island could not have been more desperate. Still not spent, the system regained strength, curved northward through the Gulf of Mexico, and struck Havana’s satellite city, New Orleans, causing the Mississippi River to overflow its banks—flooding the lowlands, destroying the crops, and placing additional pressure on the provisioning system.9 As winter 1776–77 set in, drought returned to the center of the island, especially in the provinces of Puerto Príncipe and Cuatro Villas. The dry winter gave way to spring, and as the rainy season returned, reports came from Havana’s neighboring province, Matanzas, that the bridge over the San Juan River was in danger of collapsing.10 Continuous rainfall throughout the summer made the roads impassable and prevented José de Alvarado from returning to Havana from Trinidad. Alvarado was stranded in the port on the southern coast when he could not engage any boat to take him to Batabanó because the captains feared sailing during the autumnal equinox.11 At the end of October, eastern Cuba once again was wracked by a hurricane, which appears to have passed between Cuba and Saint Domingue. Even though it was on the western fringes, Bayamo, nonetheless, suffered considerable damage.12 Santiago de Cuba, closer to the eye of the storm, felt the full fury of the wind and rain, and for the third time in as many years, reports...

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