It is most probable that not many inhabitants of Havana know about the fact that in broad period of Spanish Colonial campaign, a complete detachment of soldiers, belonging to the Regiment of Free Negroes from the British West Indies, under the command of a Lieutenant of the Royal Navy, were on board a warship from that nation, without coming down to town for then long years.
In August, l837, the British Admiralty decided to send to Havana Port, the Pontoon “Romney” with the referred troop and his officer.

Spain had to accept such “offense to national honor”, as historian Don Jacobo de la Pelezuela and Lobo, qualified it to confirm – that here- the agreement was accomplished between the two empires about the elimination of trafficking of Africans to be sold and exploited as slaves.

The British motives were far from being altruistic or humanitarian; it was proclaimed demagogically. Their interest in this matter was to promote in the world the new economic formulas of capitalism, with the advanced technologies, which were productive and economical of the Industrial Revolution

The Spanish empire was forced to commitment against their will, before the concrete threat of a war declaration against a very powerful adversary, as they were unable to confront the situation under military condition.

But as the illegal movement continued, because it was an imperious necessity for sugar production, Creoles and Spaniards, with undeclared approval of the authorities of the Island, among other measures, that of the Pontoon “Romney”, was implanted, which besides being a menacing reminder that the signed commitments had to be fulfilled completely, it would also serve as a reservoir of Africans who had the fortune to be released by the British Royal Navy after the capture, in the middle of the Atlantic, on vessels of the smugglers hired to bring them as goods, to the Cuban coasts.

Translator: Reinaldo Fernandez