The first great apostle and martyr of the Cuban War of Independence, José Martí, was born in Havana on January 28, 1853, and fell in battle at Dos Rios on May 19, 1895. He was a Professor of Literature, Doctor of Laws, economist, philosopher, essayist, journalist, poet, historian, statesman, tribune of the people, organizer of the final and triumphant cause of Cuban freedom. He suffered imprisonment in Spain and exile in Mexico, Guatemala, and the United States, doing his crowning work in the last-named country as the vitalizing and energizing head of the Cuban Junta in New York. His fame must be lasting as the nation which he founded, wide as the world which he adorned.

THE
HISTORY OF CUBA

BY
WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON
A.M., L.H.D.
Author of "A Century of Expansion," "Four Centuries of
the Panama Canal," "America's Foreign Relations"
Honorary Professor of the History of American Foreign
Relations in New York University
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME FOUR

NEW YORK
B. F. BUCK & COMPANY, INC.
156 FIFTH AVENUE
1920

Copyright, 1920,
BY CENTURY HISTORY CO.
All rights reserved

ENTERED AT STATIONERS HALL
LONDON, ENGLAND.

PRINTED IN U. S. A.

[{iii}]

CONTENTS

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[{ix}]

ILLUSTRATIONS

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THE HISTORY OF CUBA

CHAPTER I

Cuba for Cuba must be the grateful theme of the present volume. We have seen the identification of the Queen of the Antilles with the Spanish discovery and conquest of America. We have traced the development of widespread international interests in that island, especially implicating the vital attention of at least four great powers. We have reviewed the origin and development of a peculiar relationship, frequently troubled but ultimately beneficent to both, between Cuba and the United States of America. Now, in the briefest of the four major epochs into which Cuban history is naturally divided, we shall have the welcome record of the achievement of Cuba's secure establishment among the sovereign nations of the world.

The time for the War of Independence was well chosen. That conflict was, indeed, a necessary and inevitable sequel to the Ten Years' War and its appendix, the Little War; under the same flag, with the same principles and issues, and with some of the same leaders. Indeed we may rightly claim that the organization of the Cuban Republic remained continuous and unbroken, if not in Cuba itself, at least in the United States, where, in New York, the Cuban Junta was ever active and resolute. The Treaty of Zanjon ended field operations for the time. It did not for one moment or in the least degree quench or diminish the impassioned and resolute determination of the Cuban people to become a nation.[{2}]

We have said that the War of Independence was inevitable. That was manifestly so because of the determination of the Cubans to become independent. It was also because of the failure of the Spanish government to fulfil the terms and stipulations of the Treaty of Zanjon, concerning which we have hitherto spoken. It must remain a matter of speculation whether that government ever intended to fulfil them. It is certain that few thoughtful Cubans, capable of judging the probabilities of the future by the actualities of the past, expected that it would do so. We may also regard it as certain that even a scrupulous fulfilment of those terms, while it might have postponed it, would not and could not permanently have defeated the assertion of Cuban independence.

RICARDO DEL MONTE

Journalist, critic, poet and patriot, Ricardo del Monte was born at Cimorrones in 1830, and was educated in the United States and Europe. In Rome he was attached to the Spanish embassy. In Spain he was a journalist with liberal and democratic tendencies. He returned to Cuba in 1847 and edited several papers in Havana, including, after the Ten Years War, El Triunfo and El Pais, the organ of the Autonomists. He was a writer in prose and verse of singular power and grace, his works ranking in style with the best of modern Spanish literature. He died in 1908.

The Cuban Revolutionary Party, which as we have said never went out of existence, was reorganized for renewed activity in New York in April, 1892; from which time we may properly date the beginning of the War of Independence. Its leader was Jose Marti, of whom we shall have much more to say hereafter; but he did not accept the official headship of the Junta.[{3}] That place was taken by Tomas Estrada Palma, the honored veteran of the Ten Years' War, who at this time was the principal of an excellent boys' school at Central Valley, New York. He was the President of the Junta. The Secretary was Gonzalo de Quesada, worthy bearer of an honored name; a fervent patriot and an eloquent orator. The Treasurer was Benjamin Guerra, an approved patriot, and the General Counsel was Horatio Rubens. This New York Junta, meeting at No. 56 New Street, New York City, was the real head of the whole movement. But it was supplemented by many other Cuban clubs elsewhere. There were ten in New York, 61 at Key West, Florida; 15 at Tampa, two at Ocala, two in Philadelphia, and one each at New Orleans, Jacksonville, Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and St. Augustine. There were also six in the island of Jamaica, two in Mexico, and one in Hayti.

The multiplication of these organizations and their increasing activity did not escape the observation of the Spanish government, which realized that revolution was in the air, and that it behooved it to do something to counteract it if it was to avoid losing the last remains of its once vast American empire. Accordingly early in 1893 the Cortes at Madrid enacted a bill extending the electoral franchise in Cuba to all men paying each as much as five pesos tax yearly. The Autonomist party at first regarded this concession with doubt and suspicion, but finally decided to give it a trial and participated in the elections held under the new law. But the result was unsatisfactory; owing, it was openly charged, to gross intimidation and frauds by the Government. The sequel was increased activity of the revolutionary organizations.

The Spanish government was vigilant and strenuous.[{4}] It sent more troops to Cuba, and it sent a large part of its navy to American waters, to patrol the Cuban coast, to cruise off the Florida coast, and to guard the waters between the two, in order to prevent the sending of filibustering expeditions or cargoes of supplies from the United States to Cuba. These efforts were so efficient that no important expeditions got through. But in spite of that fact an insurrection was started in Cuba in the spring of 1893.

The leaders were two brothers, Manuel and Ricardo Sartorius, of Santiago de Cuba. On April 24 they put themselves at the head of a band of twenty men and, at Puernio, near Holguin, they proclaimed a revolution. The next day they were joined by eighteen more, and by the time they had marched to Milas, on the north coast, the band was increased to 300, while other bands, in sympathy with them, were formed at Holguin, Manzanillo, Guantanamo, and Las Tunas. This movement, however, was purely a private enterprise of the Sartorius Brothers; in which they presumably expected to be supported by a general uprising of the Cuban people. As a matter of fact there was no such uprising. The people seemed indifferent to it. The juntas and clubs in New York and elsewhere knew nothing about it. The Executive Committee of the Autonomist Party in Cuba adopted resolutions condemning it and giving moral support to the Spanish government, and the Cuban Senators and Deputies in the Cortes at Madrid took like action.

Meantime the Spanish authorities in the island acted promptly and with vigor. The Captain-General summoned a council of war on April 27, and sent troops to the scene of revolt, and directed the fleet to exercise renewed vigilance to prevent aid from reaching the insurgents from the United States. The next day martial[{5}] law was proclaimed throughout the province of Santiago de Cuba, and four thousand troops, divided into seven columns, were in hot pursuit of the revolutionists. The numbers of the latter rapidly dwindled through desertions and in a couple of days all had vanished save the two brothers and 29 of their followers. On May 2 these all surrendered, on promise of complete pardon, a promise which was fulfilled, and on May 9 martial law was withdrawn and the abortive revolt was ended.

This occurrence moved the Spanish government, however, to further efforts to placate the Cubans, and in 1894 the Minister for the Colonies, Senor Maura, proposed a bill for the reorganization of the insular government. The six provincial councils were to be merged into a single legislature. With this was to be combined an Executive Council, or Board of Administration, to administer the laws; consisting of the Governor-General as President, various high civil and military functionaries, and nine additional members named by Royal decree. This arrangement was strongly opposed and finally defeated, whereupon Senor Maura resigned. Later in the same year the Cabinet was reorganized with him as Minister of Justice and with Senor Abarzuza, a follower of Emilio Castelar, the Spanish Republican leader, as Minister for the Colonies. The Prime Minister was Praxedes Sagasta, the leader of the Spanish Liberals, and a statesman of consummate ability. There was much complaint by Conservatives that the Captain-General in Cuba, Emilio Calleja, favored the native Autonomists over the Loyalists or Spanish party. Despite this, Senor Abarzuza, after taking much counsel with the Prime Minister and others, planned radical action in behalf of Cuban autonomy, hoping to establish a new regime which, he fondly hoped, would allay discontent, abate[{6}] disaffection, and confirm Cuba in her traditional status of the "Ever Faithful Isle." Accordingly he entered into long and earnest consultation with the leaders of the various political parties in Spain, including the Carlists and Radical Republicans, and also with representative Loyalists and Home Rulers—otherwise Spaniards and Autonomists—of Cuba. Never, indeed, was a more thorough attempt made to secure the judgment of all parties and thus to frame a measure that would be satisfactory to all. Moreover, an exceptionally reasonable and conciliatory spirit was shown by all the leading politicians, of all shades of opinion, so that it seemed for a time that the resulting bill, framed by Senors Sagasta and Abarzuza, would be accepted with scarcely a word of criticism and would mark the opening of a new era in colonial affairs.

JULIAN DEL CASAL

During his brief life, from 1863 to October 21, 1891, Julian del Casal, invalid and misanthrope though he was, made a brilliant record in the world of letters, and gave to Cuban poetry its greatest modern impulse. Most of his life was spent in penury, on the meagre earnings of a hack journalist, but his memory is cherished as that of one of the foremost men of letters of his time.

The bill was drafted. It was in purport a West Indies Home Rule bill. Its salient feature was the establishment in Cuba of an Insular Council, which would be the local governing body of the colony. Of it the Spanish Viceroy, or Captain General, would be the President; and of course he would continue to be appointed by the Crown. Of the members of the Council, one half would be appointed by the Crown, from among certain[{7}] specified classes of the inhabitants of Cuba; and the other half would be elected by the suffrages of the Cuban people. This body would have, subject only to the veto of the Captain-General, control of all insular affairs, including supervision of provincial and municipal councils. It would also, subject to the approval of the Madrid government, legislate for the regulation of immigration, commerce, posts and telegraphs, revenue, and similar matters. On the face of it the measure promised great improvement in the government of the island, and the investing of the people of Cuba with a very large measure of self-government, both legislative and executive. It was the last and probably the best voluntary attempt ever made by Spain to give Cuba self-government.

Unfortunately for Spain there were two fatal flaws in the scheme; one subjective, one objective. The former was the fact that the appointment of half the members of the Council by the Crown would assure in that body a constant majority devoted to and subservient to the Crown, and that circumstance, together with the veto power, would prevent the possibility of any legislation not entirely pleasing to Madrid. That made the thing quite unacceptable to all Cubans whose aim was the independence of the island or even genuine autonomy and home rule. The other flaw was the fact that while Cuban Loyalists and Autonomists were called into consultation over the bill, and gave it their approval, Cuban advocates of Independence were not called; they would not have entered into conference; and they were irrevocably committed against any scheme that did not provide for the complete separation of the island from Spain and the creation of an entirely independent government. The bill was adopted by the Spanish Chamber of Deputies by a practically unanimous vote, on February 14, 1895, and[{8}] was likewise adopted by the Senate. In Cuba it was regarded by the Autonomists as not satisfactory, in that it retained too much power for the Crown. As for the party of Cuban Independence, it looked upon it as unworthy of serious consideration. Ten days after its passage by the Chamber of Deputies, the Cuban Revolution was proclaimed.

The reproachful comment has been made by some writers that the Cuban leaders started the revolution at that date, February 24, 1895, in order to defeat the beneficent designs of Spain in granting autonomy to the island, and that if they had not done so, the Abarzuza law would have been generally accepted and successfully applied, and Cuba would have remained a colony of Spain, contented, loyal and prosperous. For this strange theory there is no good foundation. It had been made perfectly clear for more than two years preceding that no such arrangement—indeed, that nothing short of complete separation from Spain—would satisfy the Cuban people. Moreover, preparations had been copiously made for the revolution, long before the passage of this measure. Cubans in the United States, of whom there were many, had contributed freely of their means for the purchase of arms and ammunition. There were considerable stocks of arms in Cuba which had remained concealed since the Ten Years' War, and these had been added to by surreptitious shipments from the United States. It is a matter of record that considerable quantities of first rate Mauser rifles were obtained from the arsenals of the Spanish government, being secretly purchased from custodians who were either corrupt or in sympathy with the revolutionists. Efforts were also made to land expeditions from the United States. One[{9}] formidable party was to have sailed from Fernandina, Florida, a month before the passage of the Abarzuza law, but it was checked and disbanded by the United States authorities.

The year 1895 was not inappropriate for the beginning of a war which should annihilate the Spanish colonial empire and should add a new member to the world's community of sovereign nations. In almost every quarter of the globe great things were happening. At the antipodes Japan was completing her crushing defeat of China and was thus bringing herself forward as one of the great military and naval powers. The ancient empire of Siam was establishing an enlightened constitutional and parliamentary system of government. In Africa the epochal conflict between Boer and Briton was developing inexorably, and France was about to achieve the conquest of Madagascar. In Europe, Nicholas II was newly seated upon the throne of the Czars, and the strange resignation of the Presidency by Casimir-Perier threw France into such a crisis as she had scarcely known before since the foundation of the Republic. Nearer home, Peru and Ecuador were convulsed with revolution, and the controversy between Venezuela and British Guiana began to loom acute and ominous. In such a setting was the War of Cuban Independence staged.

The foremost director of that war, its organizer and inspirer, was José Marti; one of those rare geniuses who have appeared occasionally in the history of the world to be the incarnation of great ideals of justice and human right. He was indeed many times a genius: Organizer, economist, historian, poet, statesman, tribune of the people, apostle of freedom, above all, Man. In himself he united the virtues, the enthusiasm and the energising vitality[{10}] which his countrymen needed to have aroused in themselves. To his disorganized and disheartened country he brought a magic personality which won all hearts and inspired them all with his own irrepressible and indestructible ideal, National Independence.

Marti was a native Cuban, born in Havana on January 28, 1853. In his mere boyhood he became an eloquent and inspiring advocate of the ideal to which he devoted his life and which he did so much to realize; and at the outbreak of the Ten Years' War, when he was scarcely yet sixteen years old, the Spanish government recognized in him one of its most formidable foes and one of the most efficient propagandists of Cuban independence. For that reason, before he had a chance to enter the ranks of the patriot army, he was deported from the island and doomed to exile. He made his way to Mexico, thence to Guatemala, and there, a lad still in his teens, became Professor of Literature in the National University of that country—a striking testimonial to his erudition and culture. After the Treaty of Zanjon he was permitted to return to Cuba, but he was one of those whom the Spanish government most feared, and he was therefore kept under the closest of surveillance by the police. It was not in his nature to dissemble, or to be afraid. He quickly came before the public in a series of memorable orations, memorable alike for their sonorous eloquence, their cultured erudition, and their intense patriotism; in which he set forth the deplorable state in which Cuba still lay, after her ten years' struggle for better things, and the need that the work which had been so bravely undertaken by Cespedes and his associates should be again undertaken and pressed to a successful conclusion. His orations seemed to have the effect attributed to Demosthenes in his Philippics: They made[{11}] his hearers want to take up arms and fight against their oppressors.

This of course brought upon him the wrath of Spain. He was arrested, and since he was altogether too dangerous a person to be set free in exile, he was carried a close prisoner to Spain. But he quickly made his escape and found asylum in the United States of America; and there his greatest work for Cuba was achieved. Porfirio Diaz had invited him to make his home in Mexico, where he might have risen to almost any eminence in the state, but he declined. "I must go," he said, "to the country where I can accomplish most for the freedom of Cuba from Spain. I am going to the United States." In New York City, where he made his home, he engaged in literary work, and was for some time a member of the staff of the New York Sun. But above all he devoted his time, thought, strength and means to organizing the Cuban revolution.

He gathered together in the Cuban Revolutionary Party all the surviving veterans of the Ten Years' War, Cuban political exiles—like himself—the remnants of Merchan's old "Laborers' Associations," and welded them into a harmonious and resolute whole. He also traveled about the United States, in Mexico and Central America, and in Jamaica and Santo Domingo, wherever Cubans were to be found, rousing them to patriotic zeal and organizing them into clubs tributary to the central Junta in New York. In Cuba itself many such clubs were organized, in secret, which maintained surreptitious correspondence with the New York headquarters.

We have already mentioned some of those with whom he surrounded himself: Tomas Estrada Palma, the President of the Junta; Gonzalo de Quesada, its Secretary, who lived to see the Republic established and to become[{12}] its Minister to Germany, where he died; Benjamin F. Guerra, its Treasurer; and Horatio Rubens, its Counsel, who had been trained in the law office of Elihu Root. Others of that memorable and devoted company were General Emilio Nunez, afterward Vice-President of the Cuban Republic; and Dr. Joaquin Castillo Duany, formerly an eminent physician in the United States Navy, who had distinguished himself in the relief of the famous Jeannette Arctic expedition. These two had charge of the filibustering or supply expeditions which were surreptitiously dispatched from the United States to Cuba. At first General Nunez had charge of all, but when Dr. Duany came from Cuba the work was divided, and the former devoted himself to the coast from Norfolk to the Rio Grande, while the latter supervised that from Norfolk to Eastport, Maine. Dr. Duany and his brother had been prominent citizens and officials in Santiago de Cuba. As soon as the War of Independence began they joined the patriot forces, and Dr. Duany was made Assistant Secretary of War in the Provisional Government. As such, he ran the Spanish blockade of the island, in company with Mr. George Reno, another ardent patriot, and bore to New York authority from the Provisional Government for the issuing of $3,000,000 of Cuban bonds. He also carried with him in a little satchel $90,000 in cash, which had been contributed by various patriotic residents of Cuba.

Another of Marti's associates in New York was Dr. Lincoln de Zayas, a brilliant orator, afterward Secretary of Public Instruction of the Cuban Republic; a man greatly loved by all who knew him. Dr. Enrique Agramonte, brother of that gallant Ignacio Agramonte who was a leader in the Ten Years' War and was killed in that conflict, was a member of the Junta in New York,[{13}] who inspected and selected all the men who were to go on filibustering expeditions; a keen judge of the physical, mental and moral fitness of all the candidates who presented themselves before him. Colonel José Ramon Villalon was also active in the Junta; and he has since been Secretary of Public Works at Havana under President Mario G. Menocal. Nor must Ponce de Leon, a publisher and bookseller, of No. 32 Broadway, New York, be forgotten. His office was frequently the meeting place of the conspirators, if so we may call the patriots, and he and his two sons—one a physician, the other in charge of the archives of the Cuban government—were among the most earnest and efficient workers for the cause of independence.

JOSE RAMON VILLALON

José Ramon Villalon, Secretary of Public Works, was born at Santiago in 1864. He was sent to Barcelona to be educated and later studied at the Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., where he graduated as civil engineer in 1899. On the outbreak of the war he accompanied General Antonio Maceo on his famous raid in Pinar del Rio province, and was present at the engagements of Artemisa, Ceja del Negro, Montezuelo, attaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel of engineers. While serving under Maceo he designed and constructed the first field dynamite gun, now in the National Museum in Havana. After the war he was made Secretary of Public Works under the military government of General Leonard Wood. Col. Villalon is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the Academy of Sciences (Havana), and the Cuban Society of Engineers.

The ideal of Marti and these associates was unequivocally that of Cuban independence. They had no thought of accepting or even considering mere autonomy under Spanish sovereignty, or any promises of reforms in the insular government. They might not have been inexorably opposed to annexation to the United States, had opportunity for that been offered. They might have accepted[{14}] it, in fact, for the sake of getting entirely away from Spain; for that would at least have meant independence from Spain. But as a matter of fact, annexation was not considered. It was never discussed. It formed no part of the programme, not even as an alternative.

Although a poet and a seer, Marti was one of the most practical of men. He realized with Cicero that "endless money forms the sinews of war." One of his first cares, therefore, was to finance the revolution. To that end he made a direct appeal to Cuban workmen—and women, too—wherever he could get into contact with them, to give one tenth of their weekly wages to the cause of Cuban independence. Probably never before or since in the world's wars has such a system of voluntary tithing been so successfully conducted. It seemed as though every Cuban in the United States responded. Wealthy men gave one tenth of their large incomes, and Cuban girls in cigar factories gave one tenth of their small wages. In many cases they did more, giving one day's wages each week. Indeed, this is said to have been the general rule in the cigar and cigarette factories of the United States. Next to Marti himself, Lincoln de Zayas was perhaps the most successful money raiser. Numerous speakers and canvassers went to all parts of the country where Cubans might be found, soliciting funds. Appeal was also made to Americans, but not so much for pecuniary aid as for sympathy and moral aid. But in fact much money was given by liberty loving Americans. John Jacob Astor, afterward a Colonel in the United States army in the war of intervention, gave $10,000. William E. D. Stokes, of New York, was also a large contributor and manifested much interest in the cause, presumably in part because his wife was a Cuban.[{15}]

Most of this work of Marti's was done in 1893 and 1894. His original plan was to launch a vast plan of numerous invasions of the island and simultaneous uprisings in all the provinces in 1894. He purchased and equipped three vessels, the Amadis, the Baracoa and the Lagonda, only to suffer the mortification and very heavy loss of having them seized by the American authorities for violation of the neutrality law. Undaunted and undismayed, he renewed his efforts, and at last had the satisfaction of seeing the revolution openly begun at Baire, near Santiago, on February 24, 1895. And then occurred one of the most lamentable and needless tragedies of the whole war—indeed, of all the history of Cuba.

It was not in Marti's generous and valiant spirit to remain at the rear and send others forward to face the fire of the foe. Accordingly, as soon as the revolution was started, he went from New York to Santo Domingo to confer with the old war horse of the Ten Years' conflict, Maximo Gomez, and from that island he issued his manifesto concerning the purposes and programme of the revolution. Well would it have been for him and for Cuba had he remained there, or had he returned to New York, to continue the work which he had been so successfully doing. But because of a thoughtless clamor in the press and on the part of the public he was moved to proceed to Cuba with Gomez. They landed in a frail craft at Playitas on April 11, with about 80 companions, many of them veterans of the Ten Years' War. They at once joined the cavalry forces of Perico Perez, and plunged into the thick of the fighting; Marti showing himself as brave in battle as he had been wise in council. Meantime a Provisional Government had been formed, by the proclamation of Antonio Maceo, with Tomas Estrada Palma as Provisional President of the Cuban Republic,[{16}] Maximo Gomez as Commander in Chief of the Army, and José Marti as Secretary General and Diplomatic Agent Abroad. This appointment was agreeable to Marti, and would have meant the most advantageous utilization of his masterful talents for the good of Cuba. But it was not possible for him immediately to begin such duties. He was with the army in the interior of the island, and his approach to the coast whence he was to sail on his mission must be effected with caution.

While Gomez set out for Camaguey, Marti turned toward the southern coast, intending to go first to Jamaica, whence he could take an English steamer for New York or any other destination he might select. Marti had with him an escort of only fifty men, and soon after parting company with Gomez he was led by a treacherous guide into a ravine where he was trapped by a Spanish force outnumbering the Cubans twenty to one. The Cubans fought with desperate valor, Marti himself leading a charge which nearly succeeded in cutting a way through the Spanish lines. But the odds were too heavy against them, and without even the satisfaction of taking two or three Spanish lives for every life they gave, the Cubans were all slain, Marti himself being among the last to fall. Word of the conflict reached Gomez, and he came hastening back, just too late to save his comrade, and was himself wounded in the furious attack which he made upon the Spaniards in an attempt at least to recover Marti's body. But his vengeful valor was ineffectual. Marti's body was taken possession of by the Spaniards, who demonstrated their appreciation of his greatness, though he was their most formidable foe, by bearing it reverently to Santiago and there interring it with all the honors of war.

THE PRADO

Havana's most fashionable residence street and driving thoroughfare extends from the gloomy Punta fortress along the line of the ancient city wall, past the Central Park to Colon Park, shaded with laurels and lined with handsome homes and clubs. In 1907 a hurricane wrecked many of the great laurels, as well as the royal palms of Colon Park, but in the genial climate of Cuba the ravages of the elements were rapidly repaired. The Prado was officially renamed by the Cuban Republic the Paseo de Marti, in honor of José Marti, but the old name still clings inseparably to it.

[{17}]

Thus untimely perished the man who should have lived to be known as the Father of His Country. But he left a name crowned with imperishable fame. A Spanish American author has said that the Spanish race in America has produced only two geniuses, Bolivar and Marti. If that judgment be too severe in its restriction, at least it is not an over-estimate of those two transcendent patriots. Marti left, moreover, an example and an inspiration which never failed his countrymen during the subsequent years of war. Their loss in his death was irreparable, but they were not inconsolable; for while he perished, his cause survived. That cause was well set forth by him in the manifesto which he issued at Monte Cristi, Hayti, on March 25, 1895, and which read as follows:

"The war is not against the Spaniard, who, secured by his children and by loyalty to the country which the latter will establish, shall be able to enjoy, respected and even loved, that liberty which will sweep away only the thoughtless who block its path. Nor will the war be the cradle of disturbances which are alien to the tried moderation of the Cuban character, nor of tyranny. Those who have fomented it and are still its sponsors declare in its name to the country its freedom from all hatred, its fraternal indulgence to the timid Cuban, and its radical respect for the dignity of man, which constitutes the sinews of battle and the foundation of the Republic. And they affirm that it will be magnanimous with the penitent, and inflexible only with vice and inhumanity.

"In the war which has been recommenced in Cuba you will not find a revolution beside itself with the joy of rash heroism, but a revolution which comprehends the responsibilities incumbent upon the founders of nations. Cowardice might seek to profit by another fear under the pretext of prudence—the senseless fear which has never[{18}] been justified in Cuba—the fear of the negro race. The past revolution, with its generous though subordinate soldiers, indignantly denies, as does the long trial of exile as well as of the respite in the island, the menace of a race war, with which our Spanish beneficiaries would like to inspire a fear of the revolution. The war of emancipation and their common labor have obliterated the hatred which slavery might have inspired. The novelty and crudity of social relations consequent to the sudden change of a man who belonged to another into a man who belonged to himself, are overshadowed by the sincere esteem of the white Cuban for the equal soul, and the desire for education, the fervor of a free man, and the amiable character of his negro compatriot.

"In the Spanish inhabitants of Cuba, instead of the hateful spite of the first war, the revolution, which does not flatter nor fear, expects to find such affectionate neutrality or material aid that through them the war will be shorter, its disasters less, and more easy and friendly the subsequent peace in which father and son are to live. We Cubans commenced the war; the Cubans and Spaniards together will terminate it. If they do not ill treat us, we will not ill treat them. Let them respect us and we will respect them. Steel will answer to steel, and friendship to friendship."

It may be that not all the generous and altruistic anticipations of this exalted utterance were fully realized. It may be confidently declared that all were sincerely meant by their author; and the world will testify that seldom if ever was a war begun with nobler ideals than those thus set forth by Jose Marti.[{19}]

CHAPTER II

We have said that there was no consideration of annexation to the United States, on the part of the organizers and directors of the Cuban War of Independence. Neither was there much if any thought of intervention by the United States in Cuba's behalf; though that was what ultimately occurred. No doubt, if ever a fleeting thought of that passed through a Cuban patriot's mind, he esteemed it "a consummation devoutly to be wished." But it was not reckoned to be within the limits of reasonable possibility. Certainly it was never discussed, and it may be said with even more positiveness that there was never any attempt to bring it about by surreptitious means. The charge was occasionally made, in quarters unfriendly to the Cuban cause, that the Junta was endeavoring to embroil the United States in a war with Spain. That was absolutely untrue. No such effort was ever made by any responsible or authoritative Cuban.

It might rather be said that the Junta was solicitous to avoid so far as possible danger of complications between the United States and Spain. For example, it did not encourage Americans to enter the Cuban army, but discouraged them from so doing and often rejected them outright. An expert ex-Pinkerton detective was employed by the Junta to serve constantly in its New York office. His duties were in part to detect if possible any spies or Spanish agents who might come in and want to enlist with, of course, the intention of betraying the cause. But he also did his best to dissuade all but Cubans from enlisting.[{20}] He was under directions from the Junta to warn all American applicants, of whom there were many, that they had better not enter the Cuban service: First, because they did not realize the formidable and desperate character of the undertaking in which they were seeking to participate; second, because the Junta could give them no assurance of pay, or even of food; and third, because they were sure soon to grow tired of the arduous discouraging, up-hill campaign which was before them. The only men who were wanted, and the only men who were generally accepted were Cubans, whose patriotic interest in the island would enable them to endure cheerfully what would be intolerable to an alien. They were believed by the Junta to be the only men who would permanently stand the test.

As a matter of fact only a very few Americans were accepted; probably not more than forty or fifty all told. They were accepted partly because they were so insistent and persistent in their desires and demands, and partly because of some qualifications which made them of special value. They were chiefly sharpshooters who had formerly served in the United States army. When they were accepted they were reminded that they were forfeiting all claim upon the United States government for protection or rescue, no matter what might befall them. Thus if they were killed or captured and ill treated in any way by the Spanish they would be debarred from appealing to the United States, and there would be no danger of any friction between the United States and Spain on their account.

The only way in which the Junta deliberately incurred the risk of causing international trouble was in the organization and dispatching of filibustering and supply expeditions from the United States to Cuba. Of course,[{21}] all such performances were illegal. Spain protested and raged against them, and the United States government sincerely and indefatigably strove to prevent them. But it was to no avail. The expeditions kept going. For two years there was an average of one a month, carrying men, arms and ammunition, and other supplies.

Another important traffic between Cuba and the United States was that in information between the patriots in the island and the Junta in New York. The chief agent in this perilous but essential work was Mr. George Reno, who has since served in important capacities under the civil government of the Cuban Republic. It was his duty periodically to run the blockade between the little town of Guanaja and Nassau. The former was a little place of a few hundred inhabitants on the Bay of Sabinal, on the northern coast of Camaguey; and the latter was the capital of New Providence Island in the British Bahamas, the favorite resort of blockade runners during the Civil War in the United States, and since then the terminus of a cable line running to Jupiter, on the Florida coast. At Nassau Dr. Indalacio Salas, a Cuban physician, who had lived there many years, represented the Junta and acted as a sort of Cuban postmaster; receiving letters and messages from Cuba and forwarding them to the United States, and vice versa.

This contraband messenger service between Cuba and Nassau was one of the romantic features of the campaign of which the public knew nothing. The trips were made[{22}] in a little sloop-rigged yacht, carrying three or four men, and while they afforded no spectacle to the public eye and did not figure in the news as did various filibustering expeditions, they were often of vital importance to the patriot cause, and they were fraught with much peril. The passage of several hundred miles was made across the Great Bahama Bank and the Tongue of Ocean; perilous waters dotted with reefs and rocks and subject to violent storms, and closely watched at the south by Spanish cruisers. The portion of the trip nearest the Cuban coast was generally made at night, to avoid the Spaniards, but the darkness added to the peril in other respects.

This service was the chief though not the sole means of communication between the Cuban patriots and the rest of the world. Some correspondence was smuggled out of Havana on American steamers, but that was perilous work and was seldom attempted. Some was carried by a Cuban sailor in a little cat-rigged boat, with which he made trips when occasion offered between some point on the southern coast of Oriente and the island of Jamaica. On these trips, both from Nassau and Jamaica, were carried not only letters and communications of all sorts but also important supplies of medicines, surgical instruments, and other small articles which were often of indispensable value. The service was therefore of the greatest possible value to the Cubans, and it was arduous and perilous to those who rendered it. It was performed, however, without remuneration or compensation of any kind, save the satisfaction of aiding the patriot cause. The Cuban revolution had no money with which to pay salaries, but all men served for the sake of Cuba Libre.

The attitude of the people of Cuba toward the revolution, so far as at this early date they knew what was going on, was varied according to their occupations, interests[{23}] and relationships. The professional classes, the lawyers, physicians, educators, men of letters and others, for the most part wished for complete separation from Spain, and aided the cause of independence with their money and their influence. There were, however, some of them, including not a few of the most estimable and most patriotic men on the island, whose faith was not able to forecast victory. They saw on the side of the Cubans lack of money, lack of arms and ammunition, and lack of that direct connection with the outer world which was indispensable for support; and on the side of Spain plenty of money, equipment and communications, and an army of 200,000 trained soldiers thrown into a territory about the size of the State of Pennsylvania, together with an inflexible resolution never to surrender the island but to suppress every insurrection at no matter what cost. It was surely not strange that they regarded such odds as too formidable to be overcome, by even the most ardent and self-sacrificing patriotism, and therefore thought that the course of greater wisdom would be to persuade, compel or otherwise prevail upon Spain to bestow upon the island a genuine and satisfactory measure of autonomy.

The merchants and commercial classes very largely consisted of Spaniards, a fact which sufficiently indicates their attitude. They were not only resolutely committed against the revolution, and indeed against autonomy, but they were almost incredibly bitter against the Cuban Independence party. It was from those classes that the notorious "Cuban Volunteers" had been recruited in the Ten Years' war, men who, though living in Cuba and enriching themselves from her resources, were "more Spanish than Spain." They corresponded with the Tories of the American Revolution, and not merely the Tories who sat in their chairs and railed against the Revolution,[{24}] but rather those who took up arms in the British cause, and who allied themselves with the Red Indians with tomahawk and scalping knife. The animus of these Spaniards in Cuba was not, generally speaking, love of Spain, nor yet hatred of the Cubans, but rather greed of gain. They were not patriotic, but simply sordid. With Cuba under Spanish domination, they were enabled to amass great wealth, and they wanted such conditions and such opportunities of enrichment continued. That was not an exalted attitude, and it was naturally odious to the Cuban patriots who were serving without pay and sacrificing their all for the independence of the island and for the attainment of a degree of material prosperity as well as of civic and spiritual enfranchisement immeasurably beyond the sordid conceptions of these selfish time-servers.

The attitude of another important though less numerous and less demonstrative class, the manufacturers of sugar and tobacco, varied greatly according to the individual. Some were Spaniards; and they, like the merchants, were inflexibly opposed to the revolution, for similar reasons. Some were Autonomists, and they inclined toward compromise. They did not want their lands to be ravaged and their cane fields and buildings to be burned in war; not because they would hesitate at any necessary sacrifice for the welfare of Cuba but because they regarded such sacrifices as unnecessary. Some were members of the Cuban Independence party, and they cordially and eagerly supported the revolution; saying: "Let our fields and buildings be burned. If it is necessary in order to free the island that our property shall be ruined, let it be ruined!"

This patriotic attitude of some of the great property-owners, who had most to lose through the ravages of war[{25}] but who were ready to risk all, was finely displayed in the very midst of the conflict. There were in the Province of Santa Clara two very wealthy Cuban women, sisters. They were Marta Abreu, who became the wife of the Vice-President of the Cuban Republic, and who died in France, and Rosalie Abreu, whose home is preeminently the "show place" of Cuba and is perhaps the most beautiful residence in all the tropical regions of the world. These women gave large sums of money for the revolution and made many sacrifices for it, beside running great risks of utter disaster to their fortunes. They were both in Paris when news came of the death of Antonio Maceo, the brilliant and daring commander who had carried the war westward into Havana and Pinar del Rio and who fell in battle in the former province. His death was a disaster well calculated to shake the fortitude of the patriots, if not to strike them with despair. But immediately upon hearing the news Marta Abreu sent a cable dispatch to Benjamin Guerra, the Treasurer of the Junta, urging him not to be discouraged but to "keep the good work going," and adding that she and her sister were each mailing him a check for $50,000. Such a spirit was indomitable.

The small farmers of the island, or "guajiros," the peasantry and rural workingmen, were strongly in favor of the revolution, although it meant unspeakable hardships to them. They sent their families up into the mountains, where they would be comparatively safe from the actual fighting, and where the old men, the women and the children could cultivate little patches of ground, planted with sweet potatoes, yucca and other food plants, which would supply them with nourishment and also contribute to the feeding of the patriot army. Then the men joined the ranks of the revolutionary army. It should[{26}] be added that among the most eager recruits were many sons of Autonomists. Their fathers deprecated the war, but the sons realized its necessity. There were even some sons of Spanish Loyalists in the patriot army, who fought faithfully for the Cuban cause against their own fathers.

The priesthood of the island was absolutely against the revolution and in favor of maintaining the sovereignty of the Spanish crown in Cuba. There may have been a few exceptions, of priests who not only favored independence but who actually went into the field with the patriot army and fought for it. But apart from them the Church was solidly for Spain. The great majority of the priests had come from Spain, and remained Spaniards at heart and in political sympathy. They preached from their pulpits against the revolution, and undoubtedly exerted considerable influence in that direction. That fact was not forgotten after the war, and it explained the very general antipathy toward or at least lack of sympathy with the Church which then and thereafter prevailed among the men of Cuba. The women, even the most patriotic, largely remained faithful to the Church and subject to its spiritual influence, but the men renounced it because of what they regarded as its unfaithfulness to the cause of Free Cuba.

There were at this time happily no racial nor partisan differences among the patriots of Cuba. There were white men, there were negroes, and there were those of mixed blood. But the same spirit of independence animated them all, and they fought side by side in the field, and sat side by side in council, with never a thought of prejudice. Antonio Maceo, one of the most honored and trusted patriot generals, was a mulatto, but he was regarded as the peer of any of the white commanders, white men gladly served under him, and we have already seen[{27}] how his death was regarded by the Abreu sisters, who were aristocrats of the purest Creole blood. It was only in later years, after Cuban independence had been attained, that so much as an attempt was made at the raising of race issues in Cuba, and then only through the exercise of the most sinister and unworthy influences for sordid ends.

Nor were there partisan differences. Indeed at this time the Cuban Independence Party was a harmonious unity. There were no symptoms of any factional division. The rise of partisanship did not occur until after the war of independence had been won and, if we may for a moment anticipate the course of events, until it was realized that the United States really meant to keep its word and make Cuba an independent Republic. For, truth to tell, when the United States intervened in the conflict between Cuba and Spain, in the spring of 1898, while there was assured confidence throughout the island that the end of Spanish rule was at hand, there was also a general belief that annexation to the United States was inevitable. The great majority of the Cuban people probably did not know of the pledge which was appended to the Declaration of War, that the United States would withdraw and leave Cuba to self-government, and they assumed that American intervention meant American conquest and annexation. The comparatively few who did know about it had little expectation that it would ever be fulfilled. Even if the United States made the promise in good faith, something would happen to prevent its being carried out. When at last it was found that the United States was in earnest, and that Cuba was indeed to have independence, just as though she had won it without aid, there was surprise amounting almost to stupefaction, there was unbounded exultation, and there was,[{28}] unhappily, division of the people into antagonistic parties. Of these we shall hear more hereafter.

Thus was the issue joined. The great mass of the Cuban people was united and harmonious in its determination at last to achieve that independence of the island for which so many men during so many years had wished and worked and suffered. The Spanish party was implacable; and the Autonomists were largely unsympathetic—not all, for some in time joined the revolution; but the Cuban Independence party, comprising the large majority of the population, was resolute and irrepressible in its course.[{29}]

CHAPTER III

The war was on. Marti and his comrades had planned to have a simultaneous uprising in all six provinces on February 24. In each a leader was appointed, an organization was formed, and such supplies as could be obtained were provided. But in only three provinces did an actual insurrection occur. These were Oriente, or Santiago as it was then called, Santa Clara, and Matanzas; the extreme eastern and the two central provinces. In Oriente uprisings occurred at two points, under Henry Brooks at Guantanamo, and at Los Negros under Guillermon Moncada. In Matanzas there were also two uprisings; one at Aguacate, on the Havana borderline, under Manuel Garcia, and one at Ybarra. In Santa Clara the chief demonstration was near Cienfuegos, under General Matagas. The uprising in Havana was to have been under the leadership of Julio Sanguilly, but in some way never satisfactorily explained he was betrayed and arrested and the outbreak did not occur. There were not a few who at first suspected and even charged that Sanguilly himself had betrayed the cause, for Spanish money, but his sentence to life imprisonment by the Spanish authorities seemed abundantly to disprove this charge.

The insurgents naturally made most headway at first in Oriente. There were fewer Spanish troops in that province and there were more mountain fastnesses for refuge in case of enforced retreat, than in the more densely settled and populated central provinces. We have already seen that a numerous company of patriots marched from Baire to Santiago to present to the Spanish commander[{30}] there, General Jose Lachambre, their demands for the independence of Cuba. That officer of course rejected their demands, and on their retirement sent Colonel Perico Perez after them with 500 troops, to capture or disperse them. But Perez and his men did neither. Instead, they joined the insurgents under Henry Brooks, and were among the foremost to do effective work against the Spaniards. Maso Parra recruited a strong band near Manzanillo, but instead of fighting there proceeded to Havana Province, accompanied by Enrique Cespedes and Amador Guerra, in hope of raising the standard of revolution where Sanguilly had failed. The Spanish forces were so strong there, however, as to overawe most of the Cubans, or at any rate to make it seem more expedient to put forward their chief efforts in other places. In Matanzas the earliest engagements were fought by troops under Antonio Lopez Coloma and Juan Gualberto Gomez, with indifferent results. Another sharp conflict occurred at Jaguey Grande, and there were yet others at Vequita; at Sevilla, where the patriots defeated 1,500 Spanish regulars commanded by General Lachambre; at Ulloa, at Baire, and at Los Negros. A belated uprising in Pinar del Rio under General Azcuy came speedily to grief, as did another near Holguin. By the early days of March the entire movement seemed to have subsided save in the southern parts of Oriente.

The Spanish authorities had acted promptly and vigorously. The revolution began on February 24. The very next day a special meeting of the Spanish Cabinet was held at Madrid, as a result of which the Minister for the Colonies, Senor Abarzuza, authorized Captain-General Callejas to proclaim martial law throughout Cuba. This was in fact done by Callejas before Abarzuza's order reached him, and he also put into operation the "Public[{31}] Order law" which provided for the immediate punishment of anyone taken in the performance or attempt of a seditious act. The Captain-General had at his disposal at this time nominally six regiments of infantry and three of cavalry, two battalions of garrison artillery and one mountain battery, aggregating about 19,000 men, and nearly 14,000 local militia, remains of the notorious Volunteers of the Ten Years' War; a total of nearly 33,000 men. But these figures were delusive. Callejas himself reported, on his return to Spain two or three months later, that half of the regular forces existed only on paper, and that the militia was altogether untrustworthy. He had learned the latter fact by bitter experience when at the very beginning Perico Perez and his 500 men had deserted to the Cuban cause. The fact is that the leaven of patriotism had begun to work even among the old Volunteers and still more among their sons, and many of them came frankly over to the cause which they or their fathers had formerly so savagely opposed. Callejas's forces were very weak in artillery, but that did not greatly matter, since the revolutionists at this time had none at all. He enjoyed the great advantage of having possession of all the large towns and cities along the coast with their fortifications both inland and seaward; fortifications which were somewhat antiquated but still sufficiently effective against ill-armed insurgents without artillery. The Spanish navy in Cuban waters comprised five small cruisers and six gunboats; not a formidable force, but infinitely superior to that of the revolutionists, which consisted of nothing at all. It assisted in protecting the coast towns, and served for the transportation of troops and supplies, but its chief function was to guard the coast against filibustering and supply expeditions.

Although the Spanish forces were very considerably[{32}] superior to the revolutionists numerically as well as in equipment and abundance of supplies, Calleja realized that they would not be sufficient to cope with the patriots on their own ground and in the increasing numbers which he prudently anticipated would rally to their standard. Accordingly early in March he sent to Spain an urgent call for large reenforcements for both army and navy, declaring that he could not hold his own, much less suppress the revolt, without them, and giving warning that unless he received them promptly he would not be responsible for the consequences. In response a battalion of regulars was immediately transferred to Cuba from Porto Rico, and 7,000 more were sent from Spain. All the civil prefects throughout the island were replaced with military officers. In Havana and elsewhere all prominent Cubans suspected of complicity or even sympathy with the revolution were arrested and imprisoned. The Morro Castle at Havana was crowded with the best citizens of the metropolitan province. But this attempt at repression only added fuel to the flame. The revolution burst out anew in the Province of Oriente, and when Callejas ordered the local troops of Havana to proceed thither, they mutinied and refused to go. In such circumstances Callejas, who at first had affected to regard the outbreak as mere sporadic brigandage, now openly confessed that it was an island-wide revolution.

Complications with the United States also speedily arose. The arrest of Julio Sanguilly and others at Havana has been mentioned. These men had been in the United States for years, and had become naturalized citizens of that country, wherefore the United States consul-general at Havana, Ramon O. Williams, made formal demand that they should be tried before a civil court and should have the benefit of counsel, instead of being summarily[{33}] disposed of by court martial. This was a legitimate demand, which had to be granted, but it incensed Callejas so much that he asked the Spanish government to demand Williams's recall; which that government very prudently did not do. At Santiago, also, two American sailors, who had landed there in a small boat, and had been arrested as filibusters, made appeal to the American consul there, who also insisted that they should have a civil trial; as a result of which they were acquitted.

While thus careful to protect the rights of its citizens, native or naturalized, the United States government was equally energetic in its endeavors to prevent violations of the neutrality law by filibustering expeditions, and went to great expense and pains therein. It watched and guarded all Atlantic and Gulf ports to prevent the departure of such expeditions, and gave hospitality to a Spanish cruiser which lay at Key West to watch for and intercept them. Hannis Taylor, the American Minister at Madrid, assured the Spanish government that the United States would do all that was in its power to prevent such expeditions from departing from its shores, and that promise was fulfilled with exceptional efficiency. Indeed, the United States administration incurred much popular censure for its energy in stopping the sailing of[{34}] vessels which were suspected of carrying supplies to Cuba; for it did stop a number of them, to the very heavy pecuniary loss of the patriots. Nevertheless some vessels were successful in eluding the vigilance of the federal guards, and that fact gave umbrage in Spain; so that while at home the American government was charged with hostility to the Cuban cause, in Spain it was charged with too greatly favoring it.

With the receipt of reenforcements, Callejas made renewed efforts to suppress the revolution; though he had little heart in the matter and seemed to realize the hopelessness of the task. Practically all the fighting was in Oriente. Colonel Santocildes made an unsuccessful attack upon the patriots near Guantanamo on March 10, and a week later Colonel Bosch had an equally unsatisfactory meeting with them under Brooks and Perez near Ulloa. So strong were the insurgents becoming in that province that they began to exercise the functions of civil government, in the carrying of mails and the collection of taxes. Beside Henry Brooks and Perico Perez, under whom were the largest forces, Bartolome Maso, who had returned from Havana, held Manzanillo with a thousand troops, Jesus Rabi occupied Baire and Jiguani with 1,500, and Quintin Banderas, Amador Guerra and Esteban Tomayo had among them 2,000 more. After his repulse at Guantanamo the Spanish Colonel Santocildes went to Bayamo, where he was attacked and routed with heavy loss. A few days later, on March 24, a battle was fought at Jaraguana between Amador Guerra, with 900 Cubans, and Colonel Araoz, with 1,000 Spanish regulars, in which the latter suffered the heavier losses, though they finally compelled the Cubans to retire from the field.

At this time an effort was made by both the Captain-General and some leaders of the Cuban Autonomists to[{35}] make terms with the revolutionists. With the assent and cooperation of Callejas a commission of Autonomists, headed by Juan Bautista Spotorno,—who had once been for a time President of the Cuban Republic, shortly after the Ten Years' War,—proceeded to Oriente and sought a conference with Bartolome Maso at Manzanillo. That sturdy patriot received them grimly. He listened to their proposals in ominous silence. Then, in a voice all the more menacing for its repression of passion, he addressed Spotorno:

"You were once President of the Cuban Republic in the Field?"

"Yes, Bartolome; you know that."

"You then as President issued a decree of death against anyone who should seek to persuade the Cuban government to accept any terms short of independence?"

"Yes, but...."

"Then, Bautista Spotorno, for this once, go in peace; but go very quickly, lest I change my mind as you have changed yours. And be assured that if you or any of your kind ever come hither with such proposals again, I shall execute upon you or upon them your own decree!"

The next day Jose Marti and Maximo Gomez issued in Hayti the manifesto which we have already cited, which had the result of assuring all wavering or doubtful Cubans that the most authoritative leaders of their nation were directing the revolution, and that it was to be indeed a struggle to a finish. There was another result. The Spanish Captain-General, Emilio Callejas, despaired of coping with the steadily rising storm, and on March 27 he placed his resignation in the hands of the Queen Regent of Spain. That sovereign immediately summoned a Cabinet council, herself presiding. It was no longer the Liberal Cabinet of Praxedes Sagasta. That[{36}] body had fallen a few days before, in a political crisis which had arisen in Madrid over a newspaper controversy about Cuban affairs. An advanced Liberal paper, El Resúmen, had imputed cowardice to army officers who, it said, were always eager to serve in Cuba in time of peace, but shunned that island whenever there was fighting going on. At this a mob of officers attacked and wrecked the offices of the paper, and the next evening attacked the offices of El Heraldo and El Globo, which had denounced their doings. The next day all the papers of Madrid notified the government that they would suspend publication unless assured of protection against such outrages. General Lopez Dominguez approved the conduct of the riotous officers and demanded that the editors of the papers be delivered to him for trial by court martial. The Prime Minister, Sagasta, replied that that would not be legal, since all press offences against the army short of treason must be tried before civil juries. Then Marshal Martinez Campos, who as Captain-General had ended the Ten Years' War in Cuba, led a deputation of army officers to demand of Sagasta that he should suppress El Resúmen and have more strict press laws enacted. Sagasta refused and, finding his support in the Cortes untrustworthy in the face of military bullying, offered the resignation of the Ministry, on March 17. The Queen Regent invited Campos to form a Ministry, but he declined; though he announced that all newspaper men attacking the army would be shot, and he arbitrarily haled before military tribunals a number of editors, while other journalists fled the country.

The Queen Regent then called upon Canovas del Castillo, the Conservative leader, to form a cabinet, and on March 25 he did so, despite the fact that his party was in a minority in the Cortes, and it was this Conservative[{37}] cabinet which the sovereign consulted four days later concerning the resignation of Callejas and affairs in Cuba in general. It was decided to accept Callejas's resignation, with special thanks for his loyal services, to appoint Martinez Campos to succeed him, to ask fresh credits of $120,000,000 for the expenses of the war, to send large reenforcements to Cuba, and to increase the peace footing of the Spanish army from 71,000 to 82,000 men. The troops in Cuba were at once to be increased to 40,000 men, and 40,000 more were to be added, if needed, in four months. Thus did Spain rouse herself to fight her last fight for the retention of her last American possession.

It was not, however, until April 15 that Callejas received a message from the Queen Regent, formally accepting his resignation, thanking him for "the activity, zeal and ability" with which he had conducted the military operations against the revolutionists, complimenting all the forces under his command for their valor, and directing him to return to Spain by the next steamer that sailed from Havana after the arrival of his successor. And his successor landed the very next day, at Guantanamo. There was much adverse comment among Spaniards in Cuba upon this summary recall of Callejas. The explanation of it was that the government regarded him as culpable for letting the revolution gain so great headway, but it did not deem it politic to censure him publicly, or at all until he was back at Madrid. As for Martinez Campos, he promised on his acceptance of the appointment that he would quickly suppress the revolt, as he had done the Ten Years' War; and doubtless he expected that he would be able to do so.

Indeed, in sending Martinez Campos to Cuba, Spain "played her strongest card." He had long been known as "Spain's greatest General," and also as the "King-[{38}]Maker," since it was he who had restored the Bourbon dynasty to the throne. He was undoubtedly a soldier of great valor, skill and resource. He was also a statesman of more than ordinary ability, and had been for a time Prime Minister of Spain, and for fifteen years had been making and unmaking ministries at will. Now, at the age of sixty-four he was still in the prime of his powers and at the height of his popularity and influence. His departure from Madrid for Cuba was attended with demonstrations, both official and popular, which could scarcely have been exceeded for royalty itself. He reached Guantanamo on April 16, and on the following day assumed his office. It was not until a week later that he reached Havana. There he was received with unbounded rejoicings by the Spanish party, and with sincere satisfaction by the Autonomists, while it must be confessed that many Cuban patriots regarded his coming with dismay. There could be no doubt that it portended the putting forth of all the might of Spain against the revolution, under the command of a great soldier-statesman who had never yet failed in an undertaking.

On the very day after his arrival at Guantanamo the new Captain-General issued a proclamation to the people of Cuba. In it he pledged himself to fulfil in good faith all the reforms which had been promised in his own Treaty of Zanjon and in subsequent legislation by the Spanish Cortes, provided the loyal parties in Cuba would give him their support; this admission of dependence upon the people being obviously a bid for popularity. The parties in question were, of course, the Spaniards, who were divided into Conservatives and Reformists, and the Autonomists, or Cuban Home Rulers. They or their leaders at once pledged him their support, and the Spaniards gave it, for a time. But a number of the Autonomists[{39}] were dissatisfied because he would promise nothing more than the fulfilment of reforms which had never been regarded as sufficient, and on that account refused him their support. Instead, they gave it to the revolutionists, and many of them, especially the younger men, actually joined the revolutionary army, or went to Jamaica or the United States to assist in the raising of funds and the equipping of expeditions. It was thus at this time that the disintegration of the once influential Autonomist party began.

To the revolutionists he tried to be conciliatory. He offered full and free pardon to all who would lay down their arms, excepting a few of the leaders, and he doubtless expected that there would be a numerous response. It does not appear that there was any favorable response whatever. If any insurgents did surrender themselves—of whom there is no record—they were outnumbered a hundred to one by the Autonomists who at that time were transformed into revolutionists.

Campos did not rely, however, upon his proclamation for the suppression of the insurrection. He set to work at once with all his consummate military skill and his knowledge of the island and of Cuban methods of warfare, to organize a military campaign of victory. He made General Garrich governor of the Province of Oriente, with General Salcedo in command of the First Division, at Santiago, and General Lachambre of the Second Division, at Bayamo. He undertook the organization of numerous bodies of irregular troops, to wage a guerrilla warfare against the Cubans similar to that which the Cubans themselves waged successfully against Spanish regulars. When he found his troops from Spain disinclined toward such work, or unsuited to it, he sought the services of young Spaniards who had for some years[{40}] been settled in Cuba, such as had been so ready to serve in the former war. They generally declined, whereupon he sought to draft them into the service, and at that they threatened mutiny. As a last resort he sent for Lolo Benitez, a life prisoner at Ceuta. This man had been a guerrilla leader, on the Cuban side, in the Ten Years' War, but had been guilty of cruelties which caused the Cubans to repudiate him. He had been captured by the Spaniards and sent to the penal colony in Africa for life. But Campos brought him back and gave him a free pardon and commission as lieutenant colonel in the Spanish army, on condition that he would conduct a guerrilla warfare against his own countrymen. When this was done, and when under this man were placed numerous criminals released from Cuban jails, there were vigorous protests from Spanish officers against such degradation of the Spanish army, and warnings that such unworthy tactics would surely react against their author.

The official attitude of the Spanish government was at this time set forth by the Spanish Minister to the United States, Senor Dupuy de Lome. He belittled the reports of Spanish oppressions and of Cuban uprisings. "There is very little interest," he said, "being taken in the revolt by the people of Havana. I think the uprising will speedily be put down. The arrival of General Martinez Campos has brought order out of chaos. He has shown clearly to the people that their interests will be protected, and as a result has caused a feeling of security. He is every inch a soldier, not a toy fighter. He is loyal to his country, but he is humane, and as far as possible he will treat his enemies leniently. In the case of the leaders of the revolt, however, severe justice will be meted out."

Meantime the revolution was proceeding. The most[{41}] formidable figure in its ranks in Cuba was that of Antonio Maceo, the mulatto general who above most of his colleagues possessed a veritable genius for war, both in strategy and in direct fighting. He had come of a family of fighters, and had been born in Santiago in 1849, and had fought in the Ten Years' War. He was highly gifted with the qualities of leadership among men, with valor and resolution, with keen foresight and great intelligence. He was probably the ablest strategist in the War of Independence, and personally the most popular commander. At the end of March he arrived in Cuba from Costa Rica with an expedition well equipped with rifles and small field pieces. With him were his brother Jose Maceo, Flor Crombet, Dr. Francisco Agramonte, and several other officers. The landing was made at Baracoa, the Spanish gunboats which were watching the coast being successfully eluded. Soon after landing the patriots were attacked by General Lachambre's troops at Duaba, but the latter were repulsed with considerable loss. A part of the expedition was then sent around by sea to Manzanillo, on a British schooner. That vessel was wrecked and in consequence its captain and crew were captured by the Spaniards, who put the captain to death. Dr. Agramonte was one of several members of the expedition who were also taken, but he, being an American citizen, escaped court martial and was more leniently dealt with by a civil court, on the demand of the American consul at Santiago.

In a short time this masterful leader, Antonio Maceo, had control of practically all of the Province of Oriente outside of a few fortified coast cities and camps. The Captain-General, vainly imagining that the insurrection would be confined to that province, sent thither all available troops, leaving Havana, Matanzas and the others[{42}] with scarcely more than police guard. Thus greatly outnumbered, Maceo wisely resorted not so much to guerrilla warfare as to what may be called Fabian tactics. He maintained his army in complete organization and observed all the rules of civilized warfare. But he also maintained a high degree of mobility, avoiding any general engagement, and wearing out the morale of the Spaniards with forced marches, surprise attacks, and all the bewildering and baffling tactics of which so resourceful and alert a commander was capable. Early in April he was indeed in much peril, being almost completely surrounded by superior forces near Guantanamo, and actually suffering severe losses at Palmerito; but he cut his way out by desperate fighting in which he also showed himself a master hand. The most serious loss at that time was the death of the brave revolutionist Flor Crombet. He was killed not by Spaniards but by a traitor in his own command, whom Maceo presently detected and hanged. Soon after the affair at Palmerito, however, Maceo captured El Caney, in the very suburbs of Santiago, and seized the rich supplies in the Spanish arsenal at that place.

The sending of so many troops from the other provinces to Oriente emboldened the patriots of Havana and Matanzas to take up arms, and uprisings occurred at various places, particularly at Cardenas and the city of Matanzas. In the city of Havana itself a daring attempt was made to seize Cabanas and El Morro, liberate the political prisoners, and destroy the magazines if they could not be held. To encourage these movements Maceo sent detachments of his forces from Oriente westward, into Camaguey, then still known as the Province of Puerto Principe. Jesus Rabi occupied Victoria las Tunas, near the boundary of the latter province, and soon had bands[{43}] operating beyond the border. There was an Autonomist organization at Camaguey, which at first disavowed the revolution and gave its adherence to the Captain-General, but it became demoralized upon the approach of the revolutionary forces, and many of its members were soon serving zealously in Maceo's ranks.

The arrival of Jose Marti and Maximo Gomez in Cuba at the middle of April, as already related, almost simultaneously with the arrival of Martinez Campos, was promptly followed by increased activity on the part of the Cubans. Floriano Gascon organized a force of negro miners at Juragua, and inflicted a crushing defeat upon a Spanish garrison at Ramon de las Jaguas; the Spanish commander being afterward tried by Spanish court martial and condemned to death for inefficiency. At the end of the month a Spanish force was entrapped and almost destroyed by Jose Maceo, near Guantanamo. The first half of May was also marked with much fighting in the southern part of Oriente, in which the revolutionists were generally successful. Railroads were destroyed to break Spanish lines of communication, valuable supplies were captured, and Martinez Campos was made to realize the formidable character of the insurrection which he had so confidently promised to suppress.

Mention has already been made of the Provisional Government which was proclaimed by Maceo early in April. On May 18 this was succeeded by another organization elected by a convention of delegates consisting of one representative of each 100 revolutionists actually in the field. Bartolome Maso, who had been in control of the district of Bayamo since early in March, was unanimously chosen President; Maximo Gomez was designated as Commander in Chief of the army; and Antonio Maceo was made Commander of the Division of[{44}] Oriente. The next day occurred the tragedy of Marti's death, whereupon Tomas Estrada Palma, who had formerly been Provisional President, was named to succeed him as the delegate at large of the Cuban Republic to the United States and other countries; Manuel Sanguilly being later associated with him at Washington.

All through that summer the strife continued, steadily extending its area westward into Camaguey and Santa Clara. Campos endeavored to confine the war to Oriente, by stretching a line of 4,000 Spanish troops across the island at the western boundary of that province, but on June 2 Maximo Gomez broke through that line, crossed the Jobabo River, and entered Camaguey. There he was joined by a nephew of Salvador Cisneros, Marquis of Santa Lucia, with a large force, and by Marcos Garcia, mayor of Sancti Spiritus, who came across from the Province of Santa Clara. With these reenforcements Gomez soon had control of all the southern part of Camaguey, and on June 18 the Captain-General was compelled to declare that province in a state of siege.

MAXIMO GOMEZ

The foremost military chieftain of the War of Independence, Maximo Gomez y Baez, was a Cuban by adoption rather than birth, having been born at Bani, Santo Domingo, in 1838. He was an officer in the last Spanish army in that island, and went with it thence to Cuba. There he became disgusted with the brutality of the Spanish officers toward the Cubans, personally assaulted his superior, General Villar, and quit the Spanish service, returning to Santo Domingo, where he engaged in business as a planter. At the beginning of the Ten Years' War he returned to Cuba, joined the patriots, and did efficient service, rising to the chief command. After that war he returned to his plantation in Santo Domingo, but in 1895 joined José Marti in leading the Cuban War of Independence. Thereafter his story was the story of the Cuban cause. Declining to be considered a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, he retired to private life after the establishment of independence, and died in 1905, full of years and honor.

Then Campos attempted a second barricade. He placed a line of troops across the island from Moron to Jucaro, near the western boundary of Camaguey, to prevent Gomez from going on into Santa Clara province. This was the line along which was afterward built a military railroad, and on which was constructed the famous "Trocha" or barrier of ditches, wire fences and block houses. It almost coincided with the line of demarcation between the two ecclesiastical dioceses into which the island was divided. But this attempt to confine the insurrection was no more successful than the other. Indeed it was folly to try to shut the revolution out of Santa Clara when it was already there. Marcos Garcia had left behind him many fervent patriots at[{45}] Sancti Spiritus, and these soon organized a formidable force under the competent lead of Carlos Ruloff, and took the field, advancing northward and westward as far as Vega Alta. General Zayas and other patriotic leaders operated in the southern part of Santa Clara, and soon that province was almost as fully aflame with revolution as Oriente itself. This was the more significant, because it was a populous and opulent province, where the inhabitants had much to lose through the ravages of war. But like the Romans in the "brave days of old," the Cubans of the revolution "spared neither lands nor gold, nor limb nor life," for the achievement of their national independence.

Meantime in Oriente the Cubans were more than holding their own. They suffered a sore loss in the death of the dashing champion Amador Guerra, who was treacherously slain in the moment of victory at Palmas Altas, near Manzanillo. But Henry Brooks landed supplies of artillery and ammunition at Portillo; Jesus Rabi almost annihilated a strong Spanish force in a defile near Jiguani and thus frustrated General Salcedo's plans to surround Maceo's camp at San Jorge; and on July 5 Quintin Bandera and Victoriano Garzon attacked and dispersed a newly landed Spanish army and captured its stores of arms and ammunition. These reverses for his arms exasperated Campos into the issuing of a proclamation on July 7, in which, while still offering pardon to all who voluntarily surrendered, he threatened death to all who were captured under arms, and exile to African prisons to all who were convicted of conspiring against the sovereignty of Spain.

Following this, Campos, "Spain's greatest soldier," took the field in person. Of this there was need, for Maceo was besieging Bayamo, capturing all supplies[{46}] which were sent thither, and threatening the Spanish garrison with starvation. Campos hastened to the relief of that place with General Santocildes and a strong force. But Maceo did not hesitate to measure strength with Campos. He attacked him openly at Peralejo, out-manœuvered him and out-fought him and came very near to capturing him with his whole headquarters staff. Campos was indeed saved from capture only by the desperate valor of Santocildes, who lost his life in defending him: but he did lose his entire ammunition train and was compelled to retreat with the remnant of his shattered forces into Bayamo and there undergo the humiliation of being besieged by the "rebels" whom he had affected to despise. There he remained for a week, until General Suarez Valdez could come with an army, not to defeat the Cubans but to help Campos to flee in safety over the road by which he had come. Then, when the Spaniards had concentrated more than 10,000 troops at Bayamo for a supreme struggle the wily Maceo quietly and swiftly removed his forces to another scene of action.

Meantime in the far east of the province the patriots besieged the fort in Sabana and would have forced its surrender had not Spanish reenforcements arrived from Baracoa for its relief. The fort was destroyed, however, and the place had to be abandoned by the Spanish. Also at Baire, where the revolution began, Jesus Rabi captured a Spanish fort and its garrison. Everywhere throughout Oriente the Spaniards were on the defensive, while in every other province, even in Pinar del Rio, the revolution was ominously gaining strength.[{47}]

CHAPTER IV

It now seemed opportune to effect a more complete organization of the civil government of the Cuban Republic, and for that purpose a convention was held in the Valley of the Yara, at which on July 15 a Declaration of Cuban Independence was proclaimed, and on August 7, near Camaguey the action of May 18 was confirmed and amplified, Bartolome Maso being retained as President; Maximo Gomez as Vice-President and Minister of War; Salvador Cisneros as Minister of the Interior; Gonzalo Quesada as Secretary for Foreign Affairs, with residence in the United States; Antonio Maceo as General in Chief of the Army; and Jose Maceo as Commander of the Army of Oriente.

This was not, however, a finality. A national Constitutional Convention was called, at Najasa, near Guiamaro, in the Province of Camaguey, at which were present regularly elected representatives from all six provinces of the island. It afterward removed to Anton, in the same province, where it completed its labors on September 23, when the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba was completed and promulgated. Salvador Cisneros y Betancourt, Marquis of Santa Lucia, was chosen by acclamation to preside over the deliberations of this important body, and associated with him were the ablest and best minds of the Cuban nation.

This Constitution provided for the government of Cuba by a Council of Ministers, until such time as the achievement of independence and the signing of a treaty of peace with Spain should make it practicable for a Legislative[{48}] Assembly to be convoked and to meet for the performance of its functions. The Council of Ministers was to consist of six members: a President, Vice-President, and Secretaries of War, Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Treasury. This Council was to have full governmental powers, both legislative and administrative, civil and military; to levy taxes, contract loans, raise and equip armies, declare reprisals against the enemy when necessary, and in the last resort to control the military operations of the Commander in Chief. Treaties were to be made by the President and ratified by the Council. It was provided, however, that the treaty of peace with Spain, when made, must be ratified not only by the Council but also by the National Legislative Assembly which was then to be organized. No decree of the Council was valid unless approved by four of the six members, including the President. The President had power to dissolve the Council, in which case a new Council had to be formed within ten days. It was required that all Cubans should be obliged to serve the republic personally or with their property, as they might be able. But all property of foreigners was to be exempt from taxation or other levy, provided that their governments recognized the belligerency of Cuba. It was provided that there should be a national judiciary entirely independent of the legislature and executive.

Under this system the Council was organized as follows: President, Salvador Cisneros y Betancourt, of Camaguey; Vice-President, Bartolome Maso, of Manzanillo, Oriente; Secretaries—of War, Carlos Roloff, of Santa Clara; of Foreign Affairs, Rafael Portuondo, of Santiago; of the Treasury, Severa Pina, of Sancti Spiritus; of the Interior, Santiago J. Canizares, of Los Remedios. Each Secretary appointed his own Deputy, who should have full power when taking his chief's place, as[{49}] follows: War, Mario G. Menocal, of Matanzas; Foreign Affairs, Fermin G. Dominguez; Treasury, Joaquin Castillo Duany, of Santiago; Interior, Carlos Dubois, of Baracoa. The Commander in Chief was Maximo Gomez; the Lieutenant-General, or Vice-Commander in Chief was Antonio Maceo, and the Major Generals were Jose Maceo, Maso Capote, Serafin Sanchez, and Fuerto Rodriguez. Tomas Estrada Palma was minister plenipotentiary and diplomatic agent abroad. Later Bartolome Maso and General de Castillo were made special envoys to the United States.

Salvador Cisneros, the President, has already been frequently mentioned in this history. He came of distinguished ancestry, the names of Cisneros and Betancourt frequently occupying honorable places in the annals of Cuba. Born in 1832, he was by this time past the prime of life, but he was just as zealous and efficient in the cause of Cuban freedom as he was when he sacrificed his title of Marquis of Santa Lucia, and sacrificed his estates, too, which were confiscated by the Spanish government, when he joined the Ten Years' War, later to succeed the martyred Cespedes as President. Of Bartolome Maso, too, we have spoken much. He also was advanced in years, having been born in 1831, and he, too, had served through the Ten Years' War and had in consequence of his patriotism lost all his estates.

Carlos Roloff, the Secretary of War, was a Pole, who had come to Cuba in his youth and settled at Cienfuegos; bringing with him the passionate love of freedom which had long been characteristic of the Poles. He fought through the Ten Years' War and gained distinction therein, by his valor and military skill.

Mario G. Menocal, the Assistant Secretary of War, was a native of Jaguey Grande, Matanzas, at this time only[{50}] twenty-nine years old. He came of a family eminent in Cuban history, and indeed in the history of North America, since he was a nephew of that A. G. Menocal who was perhaps the most distinguished and efficient of all the engineers and surveyors for the Isthmian Canal schemes, both at Nicaragua and Panama. He himself was, even thus early in life, one of the foremost engineers of Cuba.

Rafael Portuondo y Tamayo, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, was another young man—born at Santiago in 1867—of distinguished family and high ability. His Assistant Secretary, Fermin Valdes Dominguez, was one of the most eminent physicians of Havana, and was one of those students who, as hitherto related, were falsely accused by the Volunteers of desecrating an officer's grave. He escaped the fate of shooting, which was meted out to one in every five of his comrades, but was sent to life-long penal servitude at Ceuta. After the Treaty of Zanjon he was released and returned to Havana, where he attained great distinction in his profession.

Severa Pina, Secretary of the Treasury, belonged to one of the oldest families of Sancti Spiritus. His Assistant, Dr. Joaquin Castillo Duany, has already been mentioned as one of the organizers of the Cuban Junta in New York. He had served on the United States Naval relief expedition which went to the Arctic regions in quest of the survivors of the Jeannette exploring expedition.

Santiago J. Canizares, Secretary of the Interior, was one of the foremost citizens of Los Remedios, and his[{51}] Assistant, Carlos Dubois, enjoyed similar rank at Baracoa.

Meantime Martinez Campos was straining every effort to fulfil his promise of victory. At the middle of July he had nearly 40,000 regular infantry, more than 2,500 cavalry, more than 1,000 artillery and engineers, 4,400 civil guards, 2,700 marines, and nearly 1,200 guerrillas. His navy comprised 15 vessels, to which were to be added six which were approaching completion in Spain and 19 which were being purchased of other European nations. Thus his troops outnumbered the Cubans by just about two to one. For the latter aggregated only 24,000, of whom 12,000 were under Maceo in Oriente, 9,000 in Camaguey under Gomez, and 3,000 under Roloff and Sanchez in Santa Clara. In August large reenforcements for Campos arrived from Spain, and they were no longer, as before, half trained boys, but were the very flower of the Spanish army. They brought the total that had been sent to Cuba up to 80,000, of whom 60,000 were regular infantry. However, probably between 18,000 and 20,000 must be subtracted from those figures, for killed, deserted, and died of yellow fever and other diseases. But even if thus reduced to 60,000, the Spanish were still twice as many as the Cubans, who had increased their forces to not more than 30,000.

The plans of campaign gave the Cubans, however, a great advantage. Fully half of the Spaniards had to remain on garrison duty in the cities and towns, especially along the coast, so that the number free to take the field against the Cubans was no greater than that of the latter. With numbers anywhere near equal, the Cubans were almost sure to win, because of their superior morale and their better knowledge of the country.

The Cubans suffered much, it is true, from lack of supplies,[{52}] and this lack became the more marked and grievous as the Spaniards increased their naval forces and drew tighter and tighter their double cordon of vessels around the island. Several costly expeditions which were fitted out in the United States during the year came to grief, being either restrained from sailing by the United States authorities or intercepted and captured by the Spanish. One such vessel, fully laden with valuable supplies, was seized at the mouth of the Delaware River, as it was setting out for Cuba, and the cargo was confiscated. The company of Cubans in command of the vessel were arrested and brought to trial, but were acquitted since the mere exportation of arms and ammunition in an unarmed merchant vessel was no violation of law. Far different was the fate of any such who were captured by the Spanish at the other end of the voyage, as they were approaching the Cuban coast. The mildest fate they could expect was a term of many years of penal servitude at Ceuta. Such was the sentence imposed upon sailors who were guilty of nothing more than smuggling the contraband goods into Cuba. As for Juan Gualberto Gomez and his comrades in an expedition which presumptively was intended for fighting as well as smuggling, twenty years at Ceuta was their sentence.

During the summer of 1895 a severe but necessary order was issued by the Cuban commander in chief. This, addressed to the people of Camaguey Province, directed the cessation of all plantation work, save such as was necessary for the food supply of the families there resident; and also strictly forbade the supplying of any food to the Spanish garrisons in the towns and cities. Disobedience to these orders, it was plainly stated, would mean the destruction of the offending plantation. It was the purpose of General Gomez to deprive the Spaniards[{53}] of all local supplies and make them dependent upon shipments of food, even, from Spain. This meant, no doubt, much hardship to the Cuban people. But there was little complaint, and it was seldom that the rule was violated. Whenever a flagrant violation was detected, the torch was applied, and canefield and buildings were reduced to ashes. There was also much destruction of railroads, bridges, telegraph lines and what not, to deprive the Spanish of means of transport and communication. It was a fine demonstration of the patriotism of the Cuban people that they almost universally acquiesced in this plan of campaign, without demur and without repining, although it of course meant heavy loss and untold inconvenience and often severe suffering, to them. They realized that they were at war, and that war was not to be waged with lace fans and rosewater.

At the end of September, after the close of the Constitutional Convention, preparations were made for renewing the military campaign with more aggressive vigor. Jose Maceo was assigned to the command of the eastern part of Oriente, General Capote and General Sanchez took respectively the northern and southern parts of the western half, and General Rodriguez led the advance into Camaguey. Maximo Gomez himself accompanied Rodriguez's army, and was presently joined by Antonio Maceo, and together they planned the great campaign of the war, which was conceived by Gomez and executed by Maceo. This was nothing less than the extension of the war into every province and indeed every district and village of the island, by marching westward from Oriente to the further end of Pinar del Rio.

Early in October Antonio Maceo set out to join Gomez in Camaguey, taking with him 4,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry. At San Nicolas he suffered a setback at the[{54}] hands of General Aldave and a superior force of Spaniards, but resolutely continued his progress. Gomez meanwhile pushed on into Santa Clara, established headquarters near Las Tunas, where he could be in touch with expeditions from Jamaica, and began the aggressive against the Spaniards around Sancti Spiritus. Roloff, meanwhile, was operating at the northern part of the province, at Vueltas. Martinez Campos himself was in the field near Sancti Spiritus, but failed to check the Cuban advance. In fact, at almost every point the campaign was going steadily against the Spanish; so much against them that Campos feared to let the truth be known to the world. Accordingly he issued a decree forbidding the publication of any news concerning the war save that which was officially given out at his headquarters or by his chief of staff at Havana. Only Spanish and foreign—no Cuban—correspondents were permitted to accompany the army, and they only on their compliance with the rules.

Still Campos appeared to cherish the thought that he could end the war by compromise, through pursuing a policy of leniency toward at least the rank and file of the insurgents; and in this he had the support of the Madrid government. That government had staked its all upon him, and was naturally disposed to give him a free hand and to approve everything that he did. However, it insisted that the rebellion must be crushed and that no further reforms for Cuba could be considered until that was done. It was feeling the strain of the war severely, especially since its last loan for war funds had to be placed at more than fifty per cent discount.

October was a disastrous month for the Spanish at sea. One of their gunboats was wrecked on a key, and another, which had just been purchased in the United States, was[{55}] boarded and seized by a party of revolutionists in the Cauto River, stripped of all its guns and ammunition, and disabled and scuttled. General Enrique Collazo, who earlier in the season had several times been baffled in such attempts, at last got away from Florida with a strong party of Cubans and Americans and effected a safe landing in Cuba. A little later Carlos Manuel de Cespedes did the same, bringing a large cargo of arms. Two expeditions also came from Canada, under General Francisco Carillo and Colonel Jose Maria Aguirre. The latter, by the way, was an American citizen who had been arrested in Havana at the very beginning of the war, along with Julio Sanguilly, but was released at the very urgent insistence of the United States government. Sanguilly, who was suspected by some Cubans of having betrayed their cause, was held, tried, and condemned to life imprisonment; a fact which cleared him of suspicion of complicity with the Spaniards.

Maceo advanced through Camaguey and on November 12 reached Las Villas with an army of 8,000 men. Gomez had meanwhile moved northward almost to the Gulf coast, and was operating with 5,000 men between Los Remedios and Sagua la Grande, where he joined forces with Sanchez, who had marched westward, and with Roloff, Suarez, Cespedes and Collazo. He established headquarters near the Matanzas border, where he was in touch with Lacret, Matagas and other guerrilla leaders who were actively engaged in the latter province. In that same month Maceo fought a pitched battle with General Navarro, near Santa Clara, and a few days later Gomez similarly fought General Suarez Valdes in the same region. These were two of the greatest battles of the war, in point of numbers engaged and losses suffered, and were both handsomely won by the Cubans.[{56}]

In view of these losses, Campos welcomed the arrival of 30,000 additional troops from Spain, under General Pando and General Marin. He also resorted to recruiting troops in some of the South American countries, particularly in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, thinking to find them hardier and better able to endure the climate and the hardships of Cuba than men from the Peninsula. Such recruiting was not regarded with favor in those countries, where sympathy was generally on the side of the Cubans; but a considerable number of adventurers were found who were willing to serve for good pay as soldiers of fortune. More and more, too, the Spanish soldiery indulged in excesses against the inhabitants of Cuba as well as against the revolutionists in the field, and the conflict showed symptoms of degenerating into the savagery which marked it at a later date. It is to be recalled to the credit of Campos that he resisted all such tendencies, and that he indeed sent back to Spain two prominent Generals, Bazan and Salcedo, because of their barbarous methods and their criticisms of his humanity. General Pando, on arriving with the fresh troops from Spain, was placed in command at Santiago; General Marin was assigned to Santa Clara; General Mella operated in Camaguey; and General Arderius was charged with the hopeless task of guarding Matanzas, Havana and Pinar del Rio from invasion by the revolutionists.

The Cuban government, of President Cisneros and his colleagues, established its headquarters at Las Tunas, and there approved another military proclamation by the Commander in Chief, ordering the burning of all cane fields and the laying waste of all plantations which were providing or were likely to provide supplies to the Spaniards, and threatening with death all persons found giving the Spaniards aid or comfort. One notable blow was[{57}] struck at the south, before the final advance was made toward Havana and the west. This was at the middle of December. Campos himself was at Cienfuegos, with 20,000 troops, and Gomez and Maceo decided to give him battle. The redoubtable negro farmer, Quintin Bandera, from Oriente, who at the age of sixty-three years had become one of the most agile, daring and successful guerrilla leaders, raided the Spanish lines and drew out a considerable force, upon which the Cubans fell at Mal Tiempo, thirty miles north of Cienfuegos. Only a couple of thousand men were engaged on each side, but it was one of the most significant battles of the war, because it was the first in which the Cubans relied upon the machete, and the result of the experiment made that fearful weapon thereafter their favorite arm, particularly in cavalry charges, and it struck a terror into the hearts of the Spanish soldiers such as nothing else could do. The machete was an enormous knife, as long as a cavalry sabre or longer, with a single edge as sharp as a razor on a blade almost as heavy as the head of a woodsman's axe. It had been used on sugar plantations, for cutting cane, and was so heavy that a single stroke was sufficient to cut through half a dozen of the thickest canes. Swung by the expert and sinewy arm of a Cuban soldier, it would sever a man's head from his body, or cut off an arm or leg, as surely as the blade of a guillotine. At Mal Tiempo a whole company of Spanish regulars was set upon by Cuban horsemen armed with nothing but machetes, and every one of them was killed.

Turning swiftly away from Mal Tiempo, where they had both been present, Gomez and Maceo led their troops swiftly to the northwest and before Campos realized what their objective was they were raiding and defeating Spanish troops around Colon, in the east central part of the[{58}] Province of Matanzas, between Campos and Havana. The distracted Captain-General hastened thither and, learning that they were retiring eastward toward the town of Santo Domingo, in Santa Clara, directed his course thither; only to find himself outwitted by the Cubans who had really moved further toward Colon. At last he came into contact with them, and with Emilio Nunez who had joined them, near the little village of Coliseo, and there he was badly worsted in the fight, and came near to losing his life, his adjutant being shot and killed at his side. The coming of night saved him from further losses. But then the Cubans, pursuing Fabian tactics, withdrew to Jaguey Grande, in Santa Clara, well content with their achievement, where they took counsel over plans for the great drive which was to carry them through Matanzas and Havana clear into Pinar del Rio.

Campos made the best of his way hastily back to Havana, in a far different frame of mind from that in which he had come to Cuba eight months before. He had at that time in the island more than 100,000 troops in active service. Since his appointment as Captain-General nearly 80,000 men had been sent thither from Spain. In addition there were the Volunteers, or what was left of them. According to Spanish authorities at Havana at that time the Volunteers numbered 63,000. True, they would not take the field. But they were serviceable for police and garrison duty in cities and towns, thus permitting all the regular army to be put into the field. The same authorities declared that with the Volunteers, marines and all other branches, Campos had at his disposal 189,000 men. It is probable that the entire force under Gomez and Maceo in that first invasion of Matanzas did not exceed 10,000 men. These things gave[{59}] "Spain's greatest General" much food for thought; not of the most agreeable kind.

It gave others food for thought; the Spanish Loyalists of both Constitutionalist and Reformist predilections, and the dwindling but still resolute body of Cuban Autonomists. The last-named were at this desperate conjuncture of affairs Campos's best friends. The Constitutionalists were hostile to him. They had from the first disapproved his moderate and humane methods, wishing to return to the savagery of Valmaseda in the Ten Years' War. The Reformists were hesitant; they had little faith in Campos, yet they doubted the expedience of openly repudiating him. The Autonomists, having faith in his sincerity, respecting his humanity, and deploring the devastation and ruin which was befalling Cuba, urged that he should be supported loyally in at least one last effort to pacify the island and abate the horrors of civil war.

The intellectual and moral power of the Autonomists carried the day. The Reformists first and then the Constitutionalists agreed to join them in making a demonstration of loyalty and confidence to the Captain-General, to cheer and sustain him in the depression—almost despair—which he was certainly suffering. So the representatives of all three factions appeared publicly before Campos. For the Constitutionalists, Santos Guzman spoke; an intense reactionary, who could not altogether conceal his feelings of disapproval of Campos's liberal course, or his realization of the desperate plight in which the country was at that time. But he made an impassioned pledge of the loyalty of his party to the Captain-General. For the Autonomists, Dr. Rafael Montoro was the spokesman, one of the foremost orators and scholars[{60}] of the Spanish-speaking world. He had been a Cuban Senator in the Spanish Cortes, and perhaps more than any other man in Cuba commanded the respect and confidence of all parties, Spanish and Cuban alike. He also pledged to Campos the unwavering support of the Autonomists in what he believed sincerely to be the best policy for both Cuba and Spain. A representative of the Reformists spoke to the same effect. Then Campos responded with a frank confession that he had meditated resignation, fearing that he had lost the united confidence of the various parties; but that after this demonstration of loyalty, he would continue his military and civil administration with restored hope of success in pacifying the island.

We have called the Autonomists at this time the best friends of Campos. It might be possible, however, to argue successfully that they were his worst friends, or at least badly mistaken friends. It might have been better, that is to say, for him to have persisted in retirement at that time, instead of merely postponing the day of wrath. For his renewed efforts either to crush or to pacify the revolutionists were vain. At the very moment when he was gratefully listening to those pledges of loyal support, Gomez and Maceo were pushing unrelentingly forward, not merely through Matanzas but far into Havana province itself. And like Israel of old, they were guided or accompanied by a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. The plantations near the capital were sources of supply for the Spanish, and they must be destroyed. It seemed savage to doom canefields and factories to the torch. But it was more humane to do that and thus make the island uninhabitable for the Spaniards, than to lose myriads of lives in battle. Moreover, the destruction of the sugar crop, then ripe for harvest,[{61}] would do more than anything else to cripple the financial resources of Spain in the island. All Spain wanted of Cuba, said Gomez, grimly but truly, was what she could get out of it. Therefore if she was prevented from getting anything out of it she would no longer desire it but would let it go.

So night after night "the midnight sky was red" with the glow of blazing canefields and factories, and day after day the tropic sun was half obscured by rolling clouds of smoke from the same conflagrations; while behind them the advancing armies left a broad swath of blackened desolation, above which gaunt, tall chimneys towered solitary, above twisted and ruined machinery, grim monuments of the passing of the destroyer. Day after day the inexorable terror rolled toward the capital. On the last day of the year the vanguard of the patriot army was at Marianao, only ten miles from Havana, and every railroad leading out of the city was either cut or had suspended operations. Two days later Campos proclaimed martial law and a state of siege in the Provinces of Havana and Pinar del Rio. Thus the new year opened with the entire island involved in the War of Independence. Nor was it merely a nominal state of war. Already Pinar del Rio was overrun by bands of Cuban irregulars, who destroyed the cane fields of Spanish Loyalists and ravaged the tobacco plantations of the famous Vuelta Abajo. But this was not enough. On January 5, 1896, Gomez, leaving Maceo and Quintin Bandera to hold Campos in check at Havana, drove straight at the centre of the Spanish line which strove to bar his progress westward, broke through it, and marched his whole army into Pinar del Rio.

That was the beginning of the end for Campos. In desperation he flung all available troops in a line across[{62}] the western part of Havana Province vainly hoping, since he had not been able thus to keep him out of Pinar del Rio, that thus he could keep Gomez shut up in that province, deprived of supplies or succor. Meantime he sent three of his ablest generals, Luque, Navarro and Valdez, into the western province, in hope of capturing Gomez. But the wily Cuban chieftain played with them, marching and countermarching at will and wearing them out, until he had completed his work there. Then as if to show his scorn at Campos's military barriers, he burst out of Pinar del Rio and reentered Havana, sweeping like a besom of wrath through the southern part of that province, and defeating the army of Suarez Valdez near Batabano. Then, while all the Spanish columns were in full cry after Gomez, Maceo crossed the border into Pinar del Rio at the north, and marched along the coast as far as Cabanas, destroying several towns on his way.

From Batabano the Cubans under Gomez and Angel Guerra turned northward again, and by January 12 were at Managuas, in the outskirts of Havana, from which the sound of firing could be heard in the capital itself. The railroads had been stopped before, and now all telegraph communication with Havana was cut, save that by submarine cable. The city was not merely in a technical state of siege but was actually besieged, and if Jose Maceo and Jesus Rabi, who were on the eastern border of the province, had been able promptly to join Gomez and Bandera, Havana would probably have been captured. In this state of affairs the Spanish inhabitants of the city were frantic with fear, and with faultfinding against Campos for his inability to protect them from the revolutionists. The Volunteers mutinied outright refusing to serve longer under his orders unless he would[{63}] alter his policy to one of extreme severity. The Spanish political leaders openly inveighed against him.

In these circumstances Campos invited the leaders of the various parties, the very men who shortly before had pledged their support to him, to meet him again for a conference. They came, but in a different spirit from before. Santos Guzman was first to speak. He declared that the Constitutionalists had lost confidence in the Captain-General and did not approve his policy, and that they could no longer support him. The spokesman of the Reformists was less violent of phrase but no less hostile in intent and purport. From neither of the factions of the Spanish party could Campos hope for further support. There remained the Cuban Autonomists, and with a constancy which would have been sublime if only it had been exercised in a better cause, they reaffirmed their loyalty to Campos and to his policy and renewed their pledges of support. But this was in vain. Campos realized that a Spanish Captain-General who had not the support and confidence of the Spanish party would be an impossible anomaly. He would not resign, but he reported to Madrid the state of affairs, and placed himself, like a good soldier, at the commands of the government; excepting that he would not change his policy for one of ruthless severity. If he was to remain in Cuba, his policy of conciliation, in cooperation with the Autonomists, must be maintained.

The answer was not delayed. On January 17 a message came from Madrid, directing Campos to turn over his authority to General Sabas Marin, who would exercise it until a permanent successor could be appointed and could arrive; and to return forthwith to Spain. Of course there was nothing for him to do but to obey. In relinquishing his office to his temporary successor he[{64}] spoke strongly in defence of the policy which he had pursued. Later, out of office, he talked with much bitterness of the political conspiracies which had been formed against him by the Spaniards of Cuba, of their moral treason to the cause of Spain, and of the sordid tyranny which they exercised. He declared that Spain herself was at fault for the Cuban revolution, which never would have occurred if the island had been treated as an integral province of Spain and not as a subject and enslaved country; and he prophesied that the verdict of history would be, as it had been in the case of Central and South America, that Spain had lost her American empire through the perverse faults of the Spaniards themselves. "My successor," he added, "will fail." Three days later he sailed for Spain.[{65}]

CHAPTER V

The administration of General Marin lasted only a few weeks, but it was marked with strenuous doings. His first effort was to do what Campos had failed to do, namely, to maintain an impassable barrier between Pinar del Rio and Havana. He massed troops on the line between Havana and Batabano, and took command himself at the centre, hoping to draw Maceo into a general engagement. But Maceo sent Perico Diaz with 1,400 men from Artemisia to create a diversion just north of the centre, which was done very effectively, Diaz and General Jil drawing a large Spanish force into a trap and inflicting terrible slaughter with a cavalry machete charge. Taking advantage of this, Maceo with a small detachment easily crossed the trocha at the south. At once the Spanish forces all rushed in that direction, to head off Maceo and to prevent him from joining Gomez, whereupon the remainder of Maceo's troops crossed the trocha at the centre and north. After raiding Havana Province at will, and capturing fresh supplies, Maceo returned to Pinar del Rio, fought and won a pitched battle at Paso Real, won another at Candelaria, where the Spanish General Cornell was killed, and captured the city of Jaruco and its forts with 80 guns.

By this time the new Captain-General had arrived. This was General Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau; the man most of all desired—and indeed earnestly asked for—by the Volunteers and other extremists among the Spanish party in Cuba, the man most undesired by the Autonomists,[{66}] and the man most hated by the Cuban revolutionists. He had made himself unspeakably odious in the Ten Years' War as the chief aid of Valmaseda in his savage outrages, and he was confidently expected to renew in Cuba the horrors of that campaign; as he did. Upon the announcement of his appointment the Autonomists largely abandoned hope of any amicable arrangement, and those of them who were mayors or other officers promptly resigned their places, being unwilling to serve under him. Many of them left Cuba altogether, dreading the horrors which they knew were impending. As for the masses of the Cuban people, they flocked to the standard of the revolution in greater numbers than before. Within a month after Weyler's arrival at Havana, more than 15,000 fresh recruits were following the banners of Gomez and Maceo.

It was on February 10 that Weyler landed in Cuba. He promptly issued a number of decrees addressed to both the Spanish Loyalists and the Cuban Revolutionists. He chided the former for their indifference and fears, warned them that they must expect to make sacrifices and endure sufferings, and demanded of them that they should themselves undertake the guardianship of their cities and towns so as to release all his troops for service in the field. The latter he threatened with all possible pains and penalties if they persisted in their contumacy. Death or life imprisonment was to be the fate of all who circulated news unfavorable to the government, who interfered with the operation of railroads, telegraphs or[{67}] telephones, who by word of mouth disparaged Spain or Spanish soldiers or praised the enemy, who aided the enemy in any way, or who failed to help the government and to injure the revolutionists at every opportunity. All inhabitants of Oriente, Camaguey and the district of Sancti Spiritus in Santa Clara were required to register at military headquarters and receive permits to go about their business. Later he ordered all persons living in rural districts to move into fortified towns, and confiscated the property of all who were absent from their homes without leave. It should be added that at the beginning of his administration he sought to curb and even reproved and punished the cruelties of his subordinates.

In spite of the repudiation of Campos and his policy of pacification, and the accession of Weyler and his policy of severity, the Spanish Prime Minister, Canovas del Castillo, determined to make another attempt at amicable settlement. Elections for a new Cortes were to be held, and he directed that they should be held in Cuba as well as in the Peninsula. To that end it was desirable to raise the state of siege in at least the three western provinces, and on March 8 Weyler issued an order which he hoped would conduce to that end. The civil guard, or rural military police, was to be restored to duty, amnesty was offered to all insurgents who surrendered within fifteen days and who had not been guilty of burning or confiscating property, and all others were to be treated as bandits, to be put summarily to death. All loyal inhabitants were required actively to assist in repairing railroads, telegraph lines, etc. A similar proclamation was issued for the other provinces.

The elections were set for April 12, and were then held. The Reformist faction of Spaniards refused to[{68}] take part in them, not approving the policy of Weyler. The Cuban Autonomists also refused to vote, or to nominate candidates, excepting for Deputies from the University of Havana and the Economical Society of Havana. They did this at great risk to themselves, because Weyler after trying persuasions resorted to the most ominous threats against them if they would not take part in the elections, and there really was much danger that at least their leaders would be arrested and imprisoned for treason. The outcome was that only Constitutionalists voted, and only their candidates were elected; representing an insignificant fraction of the Cuban people.

Meantime the war raged unceasingly. Having failed to keep the Cubans from invading Pinar del Rio, and then from emerging from that province, Weyler again formed a trocha from Havana to Batabano to prevent them from moving further east. But both Gomez and Maceo broke through, the former marching into the heart of Matanzas and playing havoc with the sugar plantations, and the latter going southward to the Cienaga de Zapata and thence into Santa Clara, where he received strong reenforcements from Oriente and Camaguey. Then, when Weyler was massing his troops in Santa Clara, Maceo with 10,000 men swept back to the very gates of Havana. With the adoption of Weyler's policy as announced in his proclamations, the war became a campaign of destruction on both sides, each burning towns in order that they might not be occupied by the other. In this fashion in a few weeks there were burned or laid in ruins in Pinar del Rio the towns of Cabanaz, Cayajabos, Vinales, Palacios, San Juan Martinez, Montezuelo, Los Arroyos, Cuano, San Diego, Nunez, Bahia Honda, Hacha and Quiobra; in Havana there perished[{69}] La Catalina, San Nicolas, Nueva Paz, Bejucal, Jaruco, Wajay, Melena and Bainoa; in Matanzas, Los Ramos, Macagua, Roque, San Jose and Torriente; and in Santa Clara, Amaro, Flora, Mata, Maltiempo, Ranchuelo, Salamanca and San Juan. Many other towns were partially destroyed. On March 13 Maceo attacked Batabano, one of the most strongly defended Spanish coast towns, took 50 guns and much ammunition, and destroyed the town. Nine days later Gomez sent troops into the city of Santa Clara, and captured 240,000 rounds of ammunition. He established his headquarters so near Las Cruces that General Pando fled from that place to Cienfuegos; for which cowardice he was recalled to Spain, as were several other generals. Maceo, after his exploit at Batabano, returned to Pinar del Rio, routed General Linares at Candelaria and another Spanish army at Cayajibaos, and destroyed part of the town of Pinar del Rio.

Filibustering was now rife. In spite of the vigilance of the United States government and of the Spanish navy, numerous expeditions carried men and arms to the Cuban patriots. Those which were successful were little heard of by the public, while those which failed often attracted much attention. General Calixto Garcia, one of the most resolute and daring veterans of the Ten Years' War, sent one on the steamer Hawkins, which was lost at sea. He organized another on the British steamer Bermuda, which was detained by the United States authorities on February 24, and he was arrested and tried for "organizing a military expedition," but was acquitted. A little later he reorganized the expedition and reached Cuba with it in safety. Enrique Collazo and others sent an expedition from Cedar Keys on the Stephen R. Mallory, which was detained, for a time, but finally got off and landed most of the cargo in Matanzas. The[{70}] Danish steamer Horsa was seized by the United States authorities for carrying a military expedition. The Commodore carried a cargo of arms safely from Charleston, S. C. The Bermuda took another expedition from Jacksonville under Col. Vidal and Col. Torres, but was attacked by a Spanish gunboat before all the cargo was landed, and took to flight, throwing the rest of the cargo overboard. Other successful expeditions in the early part of 1896 were five on the steamer Three Friends, one of which was led by Julian Zarraga and one by Dr. Joaquin Castillo Duany; three on the Laurada, of which one was led by Juan Fernandez Ruiz and one by Rafael Portuondo; several led by Rafael Cabrera, one by General Carlos Roloff, and one by Juan Ruiz Rivera. One came from France, under Fernando Freyre y Andrade, bringing 5,000 rifles and 1,000,000 cartridges. President Cleveland issued a warning, that all violators of the United States neutrality laws would be prosecuted and severely punished, and General Weyler offered large rewards for information leading to the capture of such expeditions, but the chief effect was to stimulate Cuban patriots to greater efforts, if also to increased precautions.

Much attention was meanwhile paid to Cuban affairs by the United States government, not only in trying to check filibustering but also in looking after the rights—and wrongs—of American citizens, and also in seeking an ending of a war which was commercially ruinous and humanely most distressing. Several joint resolutions were introduced in the Congress at Washington, for recognizing the Cubans as belligerents, for inquiry into the state and conditions of the war, for intervention, and for recognizing the independence of the Cuban Republic. There were finally adopted on April 6 resolutions favoring[{71}] recognition of Cuban belligerency and the tender of good offices for the settlement of the war on the basis of Cuban independence. It was of course necessarily left to the discretion of the President to execute these designs. He did not deem it expedient to recognize Cuban belligerence, but he did promptly, on April 9, direct the American Minister at Madrid to make the tender of good offices for ending the war on the basis of reforms which would be satisfactory to the Cuban people. True, it had been made clear that the great mass of the Cuban people would accept nothing short of independence; but the American Secretary of State, Mr. Olney, believed that if a genuine measure of Home Rule were granted and put into effect, the Cubans and their friends in the United States would withdraw their support from the revolution and thus constrain the revolutionists to yield and accept the compromise. To this overture of the United States government Spain made no reply; nor did it to a similar suggestion offered by the Pope. But Tomas Estrada Palma, speaking for the Cuban Junta in New York and for Cubans and Cuban sympathizers throughout the United States, declared that they were not at all interested in any such scheme, and that they would consider nothing short of absolute independence.

The Spanish government did, indeed, consider a scheme of so-called autonomy, somewhat resembling that of Senor Abarzuza at the beginning of the war; but in the speech from the throne at the opening of the Cortes on May 11 it was frankly recognized that the revolutionists would accept nothing short of independence, and that therefore it would be expedient to attempt any such reforms until the insurrection had been subdued by force of arms; which was, of course, General Weyler's policy.

There were numerous diplomatic controversies between[{72}] Spain and the United States over Cuban affairs. The American Consul-General at Havana, Ramon O. Williams, intervened in behalf of numerous American citizens who had been arrested for complicity in the revolution, insisting upon their trial by civil and not by military courts. In the case of five American sailors taken on a filibustering expedition, death by shooting was ordered by Weyler, but the Spanish government quashed the sentence and ordered a civil trial on Mr. Williams's threat to close the Consulate and thus suspend relations. Antagonism between the consul and the Captain-General became so intense that Mr. Williams offered to resign his office, but the President requested him to remain. However he finally retired, at his own volition, and was succeeded on June 3 by Fitzhugh Lee; who proved equally resolute in his protection of American interests.

Meantime, what of the revolutionary civil government of the Republic of Cuba? At the beginning it was a fugitive in the mountain fastnesses of the Sierra Maestra, in the southern part of Oriente, between Santiago and Manzanillo. Thence it removed to Las Tunas, in the same province. But after the great eastward drive by Gomez and Maceo it established itself permanently in the Sierra de Cubitas, in the Province of Camaguey, midway between the city of Camaguey and the north coast of Cuba. There it remained, in a practically impregnable stronghold, and there it surrounded itself with such military industries as it was capable of conducting—largely the manufacture of dynamite, machetes, and of clothing. From that capital it directed an efficient administration of the major part of the island. It levied and collected taxes, and gave to about two-thirds of the island a mail service at least as efficient as that of the Spanish government had ever been. A complete judicial[{73}] and police system was maintained, and was more respected by the people than that of Spain. In brief it was substantially true, as President Cisneros declared, that the island was peaceful, law-abiding and well-governed, excepting in those places where the Spanish invaders were making trouble!

But the Spanish did make trouble. Weyler once more strove to place an impassable barrier between Pinar del Rio and Havana, to keep Maceo shut up in the former province. He constructed it so strongly, with ditches, block houses, barbed wire fences, artillery and what not as to make it almost impossible of passage. Then he put 10,000 of his best troops west of it, to fight Maceo, and distributed 28,000 more along the trocha to keep Maceo from breaking out. The result was most unfortunate for the Spanish troops west of the trocha. They were there to hunt down Maceo. Instead, Maceo hunted them. If they ventured to attack him, he repulsed them. More often he attacked them, and almost invariably routed them. At Lechuza he cut to pieces Colonel Debos's column and drove its survivors to the shelter of a gunboat at the shore. At Bahia Honda and Punta Brava the Spanish were badly beaten. In the Rubi Hills a Spanish force was all but annihilated, and the commanders began to clamor for reenforcements; though Maceo had only 11,000 men, and the Spanish had 50,000 along the trocha to keep him from crossing it. During the summer the campaign slackened a little, though Maceo won several spirited engagements and maintained his control of practically all the province excepting parts of the coast. In the early fall, with his army increased to 20,000 he resumed the aggressive; using for the first time a dynamite gun which thoroughly demoralized the Spaniards. Near Pinar del Rio city,[{74}] at Las Tumbas Torino, at San Francisco, at Guayabitos and at Vinales, he defeated the enemy and inflicted heavy losses. The same record was made early in October at San Felipe, at Tunibar del Torillo, at Manaja, at Ceja del Negro, and Guamo. A solitary Spanish victory was won at Guayabitos.

Like the general government at Cubitas, Maceo had headquarters in the mountains, and there guarded effectively a large and fertile region, where supplies ample for feeding his army could be produced. He also conducted workshops for the manufacture of arms and ammunition. Against this position, in his rage and desperation, Weyler himself in November led an army of 36,000 picked troops, with six Generals. For several days attack after attack was made, every one being repulsed by Maceo with heavy loss to the Spaniards, until at last, with a third of his army destroyed, Weyler abandoned the attempt and retreated. Unfortunately, on December 4 Maceo with his staff and a small force decided to undertake a secret expedition to seek a conference with leaders in Havana Province. They accordingly crossed the Bay of Mariel in a small boat and thus reached the eastern side of the trocha. Messages were sent to revolutionary chiefs in Havana and Matanzas, asking them to come to a council of war at a designated point near Punta Brava, familiar to them all as secure rendezvous. A few came promptly, but in some way the secret of the meeting became known to the Spanish. In consequence, on December 7, while he was expecting the arrival of more of his friends, Maceo heard the sound of firing at the outposts of his camp. Riding to the scene, he found Spanish troops attacking him. He rallied his troops and under his directions they were soon mastering the enemy, when a shot struck Maceo and he fell mortally wounded; his last words, referring to the progress of the skirmish, being, "It goes well."

JOSÉ ANTONIO MACEO

Born at Santiago de Cuba in 1849, of a family of patriots and brave fighters, and dying in battle at Punta Brava, near Havana, on December 7, 1896, José Antonio Maceo was one of the most gallant soldiers in the Ten Years' War and one of the very foremost chieftains of the War of Independence. Gifted with military genius and with leadership of men, he was the greatest strategist and the most popular commander in the Liberating Army, and the greatest terror to the foe. Partly of Negro blood, he was an equal honor to both races, and finely typified in himself their union in the cause of Cuban independence. A monument to his imperishable memory crowns Cacagual Hill, where his remains were buried.

[{75}]

At his fall his troops were panic stricken and gave way, so that the Spaniards occupied the field and plundered and stripped the dead. It was said that they did not know that it was Maceo whom they had killed until a native guide who was with them recognized his body. While they were still plundering the dead Cuban reenforcements under Pedro Diaz came up, furious at the loss of their peerless chief, and a desperate fight ensued, which ended in the rout of the Spaniards and the recovery of Maceo's body by the Cubans. When the defeated Spaniards got back to headquarters and reported that they had slain Maceo, they were not believed. It was not considered possible that he had crossed the trocha. But a little later convincing confirmation came to them from a Cuban source. This was furnished when Dr. Maximo Zertucha, who had been Maceo's surgeon-general and who was the only member of his staff who had survived the disastrous fight at Punta Brava, came to Spanish headquarters and surrendered himself. He explained that he did so because he had seen Maceo killed, and he regarded the loss of that leader as certainly fatal to the cause of the Cuban revolution. The Spanish authorities accepted his surrender and granted him full amnesty, a circumstance which caused many Cubans to suspect that he had betrayed his chief, by sending word of his whereabouts to the Spanish commander. Of this there appears, however, to have been no proof. Thus perished Antonio Maceo, who would have been the generalissimo of the Cuban forces but for the prudent fear that maligners might then have spread successfully the damaging libel that the revolution was nothing but a negro insurrection; a fear which he himself felt, and on[{76}] account of which he insisted that Maximo Gomez should be the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolutionary armies. Thus perished Antonio Maceo, a soldier and a man without a superior in either of the contending armies, and a commander, indeed, who, in personal valor, in strategic skill, in resource, in resolution, in knowledge of the art of war, and in all the elements of military greatness, was worthy to be ranked among the great captains of all lands and of all time. The loss of him was irreparable. But it was not fatal to the Cuban cause. Thereafter the effort of every Cuban soldier and patriot was to increase his own efficiency to some degree, so that the aggregate would atone for the loss that had been sustained.

While Maceo was thus baffling the Spanish in the far west of the island, Gomez and his lieutenants were more than holding their own in the other five provinces. Jose Maceo in April marched from Oriente all the way to the western side of Havana, where he was joined by Serafin Sanchez, Rodriguez, Lacret, Maso, Aguirre and others, until nearly 20,000 Cubans were gathered there. Gomez remained in Santa Clara, where the Spaniards had a precarious foothold at Cienfuegos, protected by their fleet. Colonel Gonzalez, commanding in the district of Remedios, routed the forces of General Oliver. Then, the Spanish power in the three great eastern provinces having been rendered negligible, a general movement westward was undertaken, following in the trail of the two Maceos. Gomez himself took supreme command, and Collazo, Calixto Garcia and others marched their forces to join him. Calixto Garcia, after only Maximo Gomez and Antonio Maceo, was the foremost chieftain of the patriots, and not unworthy to rank with them in a trinity of military prowess. He was now advanced in[{77}] years, having been born in 1839, at Holguin, Oriente. From childhood a fervent patriot, at the outbreak of the Ten Years' War he took the field under Donato Marmol. His native bent for military achievement assured him advancement, and at Santa Rita and Baire he was a Brigadier General under Gomez. In 1871 he besieged Guisa and Holguin, and then, when Gomez marched westward into Camaguey, thence to force passage of the trocha between Jucaro and Moron, Garcia was left in supreme command in Oriente. In that capacity he was active, triumphing at Santa Maria, Holguin, Chaparra, the siege and capture of Manzanillo, and at Ojo de Agua de los Melones. Then came the incident which for the time ended his military career and which gave him that scar in the centre of his forehead which was ever after so conspicuous a feature. At San Antonio de Baja he and only twenty of his men were surprised and surrounded by a large force of Spaniards. Seeing that escape was impossible, and having vowed never to fall alive into the hands of Spain, he put the muzzle of a pistol beneath his chin and fired. The bullet passed through the tongue, the roof of his mouth, behind his nose, and out at the centre of his forehead. But not thus was he to die. The Spaniards took him to a hospital at Santiago, where he recovered, and then sent him to prison in Spain; whence he returned to Cuba after the Treaty of Zanjon. He was a leader in the "Little War"; then, enjoying the respect and friendship of Martinez Campos, he went back to Spain and for a time was a bank clerk at Madrid. Thus he was engaged when the War of Independence began. Suspected and watched, he was not able to escape until a year later. But on March 24, 1896, he landed at Baracoa with an important expedition, and thereafter he was a raging and consuming flame of war.[{78}]

The westward march was marked with victory. On May 14 Colonel Segura's whole battalion was captured. On June 9 and 10 near Najasa General Jiminez Castellanos was soundly beaten and forced to retreat to Camaguey. Then, hoping to bar the Cubans from Santa Clara, the Spanish reconstructed the eastern trocha, from Jucaro to Moron, and sent forces inland from Santiago and other coast towns to create a back fire in Oriente. Calixto Garcia turned upon these latter, and routed them on the Cauto River, at Venta de Casanova, and near Bayamo, and captured great stores of supplies. At Santa Ana several stubbornly contested battles occurred between Garcia and General Linares, in which the latter was finally worsted. At Loma del Gato on July 5 the Cubans under Jose Maceo and Perequito Perez defeated the forces of General Albert and Colonel Vara del Rey, but at the heavy cost of Maceo's death. Meanwhile Juan B. Zayas, Lacret and others penetrated Havana Province at will, in guerrilla warfare; but Zayas was finally killed in an engagement near Gabriel.

During the rainy season there was comparatively little activity, but in the fall the advance westward began in earnest. Garcia captured Guaimaro, and Gomez pushed on to Camaguey, but left the place to be dealt with by Garcia and hastened on, with Rodriguez, Rabi, Bandera and Carrillo. He crossed the trocha with ease, penetrated Santa Clara, and was soon in Matanzas, where Aguirre joined them with 3,200 men. He put an end to sugar making throughout most of the province, and then encamped in the Cienaga de Zapata, leaving a number of active guerrilla bands to harass and menace Havana. In the latter province at the beginning of December Raoul Arango and Nicolas Valencia attacked the town of Guanabacoa, only five miles from Havana, and[{79}] seized great stores of supplies. Beyond the western trocha Ruiz Rivera succeeded Antonio Maceo in command, and carried on his work with much success. Thus the second year of the war drew to a close with the patriots despite some heavy losses decidedly in the ascendant, and the Spanish campaign of ruthless severity no more successful than that of moderation and conciliation had been.

One other incident of the year 1896 was highly significant. At the beginning of December the President of the United States, Mr. Cleveland, in his annual message to Congress, discussed the Cuban problem very fully and frankly. He practically reasserted the historic policy toward that island first enunciated by John Quincy Adams, as quoted in a preceding volume of this history. He reasserted the Monroe Doctrine. He made it clear that the United States had special interests in Cuba, which not only all other nations but also Spain herself must recognize and acknowledge. Concerning the war he said, most justly:

"The spectacle of the utter ruin of an adjoining country, by nature one of the most fertile and charming on the globe, would engage the serious attention of the government and people of the United States in any circumstances. In point of fact, they have a concern with it which is by no means of a wholly sentimental or philanthropic character. It lies so near us as to be hardly separated from our territory. Our actual pecuniary interest in it is second only to that of the people and government of Spain. It is reasonably estimated that at least from $30,000,000 to $50,000,000 of American capital are invested in plantations and in railroad, mining and other business enterprises on the island. The volume of trade between the United States and Cuba, which[{80}] in 1889 amounted to about $64,000,000, rose in 1893 to about $103,000,000, and in 1894, the year before the present insurrection broke out, amounted to nearly $96,000,000. Beside this large pecuniary stake in the fortunes of Cuba, the United States, finds itself inextricably involved in the present contest in other ways both vexatious and costly."

Then he added, in words the purport of which was unmistakable:

"When the inability of Spain to deal successfully with the insurrection has become manifest, and it is demonstrated that her sovereignty is extinct in Cuba for all purposes of its rightful existence, and when a hopeless struggle for its reestablishment has degenerated into a strife which means nothing more than the useless sacrifice of human life and the utter destruction of the very subject-matter of the conflict, a situation will be presented in which our obligations to the sovereignty of Spain will be superseded by higher obligations, which we can hardly hesitate to recognize and discharge."

To those who knew Mr. Cleveland, and who appreciated the care with which he selected every word in all important addresses, this could have but one meaning. It meant that American intervention was inevitable. Note that he did not say "If the inability of Spain should ... a situation would ..." as though the thing were still problematic. No; but he said plumply "When the inability of Spain has become manifest ... a situation will be presented...." In his mind the thing was certain to come. It had already come, and only awaited disclosure and recognition. Remember, too, that of all men of his time Mr. Cleveland was one of the most opposed to "jingoism," and meddling with the affairs of other lands; while to any suggestion of conquest and[{81}] annexation of Cuba to the United States he would have offered the most resolute opposition of which he was capable. In view of those facts, that utterance in his message was of epochal import. It foreshadowed precisely what did occur less than a year and a half later. It was in effect a declaration of intervention and of war with Spain in behalf of Cuban independence, made more than a year before the steamer Maine entered Havana harbor.[{82}]

CHAPTER VI

We have said that the death of Antonio Maceo moved Cuban patriots to redouble their efforts to atone for the grievous loss which their cause had thus suffered. Unfortunately not all of them were capable of so doing, while those who did so were unable to make devotion and zeal take the place of consummate military genius. In consequence, despite the utmost efforts of Gomez and his colleagues matters went badly for the revolution through most of the following year. Gomez himself indeed felt that he had lost his right arm. He was at La Reforma, near Sancti Spiritus, at the beginning of 1897, and he summoned the other revolutionary leaders to meet him there, to concentrate their forces, and to plan a new campaign. They came promptly and eagerly, some of them unfortunately thus leaving without protection important strategic points and centers of revolutionist industry, which were pounced upon and captured by the Spanish. When the patriot forces were thus gathered it was expected that there would be immediately undertaken a general advance westward, into Matanzas and Havana; for which it was believed the Cuban army was strong enough, and which the Spanish were not believed to be able to resist.

Instead, Gomez decided first to effect the reduction of Arroyo Blanco. This was a small and unimportant town in the Province of Camaguey, near the Santa Clara border; containing a Spanish garrison under Captain Escobar. Gomez first summoned Escobar to surrender,[{83}] in order to avoid the destruction which would be caused by the bombardment of the place with a dynamite gun, which he threatened to begin forthwith. Escobar defied him, and the bombardment was undertaken, but proved ineffective, and before Gomez could capture the place strong Spanish reenforcements arrived and the attempt had to be abandoned. Thereafter Gomez contented himself with sending several strong bands westward, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Spaniards wherever they could, while he himself remained near Sancti Spiritus, also engaging in irregular operations.

There he was presently menaced by Weyler himself. That formidable foe had practically achieved the conquest of Pinar del Rio. After Maceo's death the Cuban forces in that province had largely dispersed, some abandoning the struggle altogether as hopeless, and others going to the east, to join themselves with Gomez, Garcia or other surviving leaders. Only a few roving bands remained. Accordingly Weyler announced that the western province was pacified. That was sufficiently true; but it was conspicuously true in the sense expressed by Tacitus, and Byron. They had made a solitude, and called it peace. Seldom had any comparable region been so thoroughly devastated and desolated. Then Weyler felt himself free to lead his army elsewhere.

He set out from Havana with an imposing array of troops, and marched through the heart of the province and of Matanzas, into Santa Clara. On the way there was little fighting to do, not even to beat off guerrilla bands. His attention was given, therefore, to devastating the country, and to driving the inhabitants into "concentration camps," where they were doomed to starve to death by thousands. By the end of February he was triumphantly encamped at the foot of the Guamuhaya[{84}] Mountains, between Santa Clara and Trinidad, and had the satisfaction of having wrought vast destruction upon the property of Cubans and upon the essential supplies of the Cuban army.

A few weeks later Quintin Bandera with a small force came from Camaguey and, by wading through the shallow water of the Bay of Sabanabamar, got around the trocha and joined Gomez. The latter directed him to continue westward, and to harass the Spaniards with guerrilla attacks. This was done, and Bandera proceeded as far as Trinidad. Then failing to receive necessary support he turned back, and on July 4 was killed in a skirmish at Pelayo. East of the trocha Calixto Garcia continued his formidable career against such Spanish forces as remained in that region. He captured Las Tunas after forty-eight hours of almost incessant fighting. In Matanzas and Havana the revolutionary bands were badly broken up by the Spaniards, and they seemed to lack efficient leadership. Their leader, General Lacret, fell into an unfortunate controversy with Gomez over his treatment of Cubans who disregarded government orders, especially in their attitude toward the Spaniards. Gomez, remorseless, would have had them shot as traitors, but Lacret insisted upon more lenient treatment of them, realizing that they were almost literally "between the devil and the deep sea" and were therefore entitled to sympathetic consideration. The outcome was that Gomez relieved Lacret of his command and appointed Alexander Rodriguez in his place, in Matanzas. That officer failed to command the loyalty of his troops, and the result was that the latter generally deserted and dispersed. Mayia Rodriguez was then ordered to the scene, but was unable to collect a sufficient force, and remained in Santa Clara, hemmed in by the[{85}] Spanish. General Jose Maria Aguirre, who died in December, 1896, was succeeded in command in the Province of Havana by Nestor Aranguren, who performed some creditable minor operations, particularly against Spanish railroad communications, but achieved nothing of real importance. His lieutenant, General Adolfo Castillo, in the southern part of the province, was killed in battle, in September, and was succeeded by Juan Delgado. The Spanish General Parrado in October marched without opposition as far as Los Palos, and there received the surrender of a small Cuban band; and in November General Pando with a powerful army made his way without serious opposition from Havana to the western part of Oriente.

It was during this year that Weyler's ever infamous "concentration" policy, which was really a policy of extermination, reached its infernal climax and was then repudiated and abandoned. This system, as already related, was decreed on October 21, 1896. It required all Cubans, men, women and children, to leave their homes in the rural regions and enter concentration camps. These were simply huge pens, enclosed with fences and barbed wire and guarded by Spanish soldiers. There the hapless prisoners were huddled together, without shelter from the elements, and with little or no food save such as could be procured by stealth. There was none to be had within the enclosures, of course, and the prisoners could not go out to get any, even if any was to be found in the devastated country around them. Their friends outside seldom dared approach the camps to bring them food, because as they had not themselves surrendered as commanded by Weyler, they were liable to be shot at sight.

Elsewhere Cubans by thousands were driven into towns[{86}] and cities which were still under Spanish control, and were there kept prisoners within the Spanish lines. They were not quite so badly off as those in the concentration camps, though the difference was not great. They had no means of obtaining food, save as the municipal authorities, more merciful than Weyler, opened "soup kitchens" and thus in charity kept some of them from starvation. As it was the mortality from starvation, disease and exposure was appalling. As it was reported that many of these sufferers were American citizens, the President of the United States asked Congress to appropriate $50,000 for their relief. This was done, and the sum was sent to the Consul-General at Havana. He was, however, able to reach only a small proportion of the sufferers, and thus was presently compelled to report that he had been unable to expend more than a fraction of the sum at his disposal. This monstrous policy of waging war against non-combatants, including women and children, did more perhaps than anything else to crystallize public opinion throughout the United States against Weyler and against the Spanish government which he represented and which was responsible for him, and to strengthen the demand that was being made for intervention in behalf of humanity.

This demand was made not merely by the "yellow press," which was inspired by sordid and sinister motives, but also by the most thoughtful, disinterested and upright men of America. Fitzhugh Lee, the highly competent and trustworthy consul-general at Havana, officially reported in December, 1897, that in the Province of Havana alone there had been 101,000 of the "reconcentrados," of which more than half had died. About 400,000 innocent and unoffending persons, chiefly women and children, had been transformed into imprisoned[{87}] paupers, to be sustained by charity or to die of disease and famine. Senator Proctor, of Vermont, one of the foremost members of the United States Senate, made a personal tour of investigation in such parts of the island as were accessible, and reported to his colleagues that "It is not peace, nor is it war; it is desolation and distress, misery and starvation." The people of the United States thus came to the conclusion that the Spanish were unable to subdue the Cubans, and that the Cubans were unable to expel the Spanish, and that the war was therefore nothing but a campaign of destruction and extermination, which would end only when one side was exhausted or extirpated. It was impossible that a civilized and humane nation should regard such a spectacle at its very doors with indifference. We have hitherto quoted the significant remarks of President Cleveland on the subject in his message of December, 1896, clearly foreshadowing intervention. His successor, President McKinley, in his message of just a year later, in December, 1897, expressed in slightly different language the identical convictions and purposes. He said:

"The near future will demonstrate whether the indispensable conditions of a righteous peace, just alike to the Cubans and to Spain, as well as equitable to all our interests so intimately involved in the welfare of Cuba, is likely to be attained. If not, the exigency of further and other action by the United States will remain to be taken. When that time comes, that action will be determined in the line of indisputable right and duty....[{88}] If it shall hereafter appear to be a duty imposed by our obligations to ourselves, to civilization, and to humanity, to intervene with force, it shall be without fault on our part, and only because the necessity for such action will be so clear as to command the support and approval of the civilized world."

If McKinley, a less aggressive and more conciliatory man than Cleveland, spoke a little less positively than his predecessor, in that he employed the hypothetical form, the purport of his words was the same. The one a Democratic President, the other a Republican President, long before that incident of the Maine which has incorrectly been regarded by some as the cause of the American war with Spain, openly and in the most explicit manner contemplated the prospect of forcible intervention in Cuba and of consequent war.

Meantime Spain herself passed through a political crisis, which made a change in her Cuban administration. Loud protests were made there against the ruthless and inhuman policy of Weyler, but the Prime Minister, Canovas del Castillo, was deaf to them and persisted in retaining Weyler in command. But on August 8 Canovas was assassinated by an Anarchist, and was succeeded by General Azcarraga, Minister of War, who continued his policy unchanged. But on September 29 the whole Cabinet resigned, and on October 4 Sagasta, the Liberal leader, became Prime Minister. He promptly recalled Weyler and appointed General Ramon Blanco to be Captain-General of Cuba in his stead. Weyler departed, breathing wrath and hatred against Cuba and against America, and predicting failure for his successor, even as Campos had predicted it for Weyler himself.

Blanco arrived at Havana on November 1, 1897, with[{89}] the purpose, as he had announced before sailing, of putting sincerely into effect the reforms which Sagasta had outlined, reforms which would, he believed, be acceptable to the Cuban people. He found the condition of affairs in the island to be far worse than it had been reported, or than he had expected. The "reconcentrados" had been dying and were still dying by tens of thousands. The soldiers had not been paid for months and in consequence were disaffected and mutinous, and were looting to obtain food which they had no money to buy. Both the Spanish and the Cuban Autonomists were profoundly dissatisfied; while the Revolutionists, though making no progress, were as implacable as ever. He at once ordered the concentration camps to be abolished, saying that he would not make war upon women and children, and he secured a credit of $100,000 from the Spanish government to assist the Cuban peasantry in the rehabilitation of their ruined farms. All American citizens were released from prison, as were also many Cubans who were under sentence of death. Cuban refugees and exiles were invited to return home, and every facility possible was afforded for the resumption of sugar making and agriculture. He then undertook to put into effect a system of home rule which he fondly hoped would satisfy the Autonomists and would bring the masses of the Cuban people over to the side of that party.

Let us review briefly the state of Cuba at this epochal time, the ending of 1897 and the beginning of 1898, the ultimate climax of four centuries of Cuban history. The War of Independence had been in progress less than three years. Five successively unsuccessful Captains-General had striven to conquer a brave people resolved to be free. No fewer than 52,000 Spanish soldiers[{90}] had lost their lives in battle or from disease, 47,000 had been returned to Spain disabled, 42,000 were in hospitals unfit for duty, and 70,000 regulars and 16,000 irregulars still kept up the fatuous struggle. The infamies of Weyler had destroyed by starvation and disease 250,000 Cubans, the majority of them women and children, reducing the population of the island to 1,100,000 Cubans intent on independence and 150,000 Spaniards opposed to their having it. The Cuban army consisted of 25,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, fairly well armed, with some artillery. Maximo Gomez was Commander in Chief. Major-General Calixto Garcia commanded in Camaguey and Oriente, with Pedro Perez, Jesus Rabi and Mario G. Menocal as his lieutenants. Major-General Francisco Carrillo commanded in Santa Clara, aided by Jose Rodriguez, Hijino Esquerra, Jose Miguel Gomez and Jose Gonzales. In the western three provinces Major-General Jose Maria Rodriguez commanded, with Pedro Betancourt, Alexandra Rodriguez, Pedro Vias and Juan Lorente as his chief aids. The civil government of the Republic had been changed somewhat, Bartolome Maso being President, Domingo Mendez Capote Vice-President and Secretary of War, Andreas Moreno Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ernesto Fonts-Sterling Secretary of Finance, and Manuel Silva Secretary of the Interior. This organization, with its provincial and municipal subordinates, was performing the functions of government under great difficulties, yet much more efficiently and to a much wider extent throughout the island, than the Spanish administration.

The uncompromising attitude of the Revolutionists, and the hopelessness of any attempt at amicable adjustment of affairs, was at this time strikingly shown in a tragic incident. It was in December, 1897. There was[{91}] in Havana a young Spanish officer named Joaquin Ruiz, who had formerly served as a civil engineer, and had been intimately associated with Nestor Aranguren, another young engineer who had become a leader of the Revolutionists and had made himself particularly active and annoying to the Spanish in the Province of Havana. The two were close friends, and were both men of charming personality. The Spanish authorities in Havana determined to use this friendship in an attempt to seduce Aranguren into betraying or at least deserting the patriot cause. So Ruiz was directed to open a correspondence with Aranguren, with a view to securing a personal interview with him. Aranguren wrote to Ruiz that he would be glad to meet him personally, but could not do so if he came on any political errand; and he warned him that for him to come to the Cuban camp with any proposal of Cuban surrender or acceptance of autonomy would subject him to the penalty of death, which would infallibly be carried out. Despite this warning, and presumably against his own better judgment, Ruiz obeyed the orders of his superiors, and undertook the errand. He had no safe conduct. He bore no flag of truce. He went through no agreement between the commanding officers of the respective sides. He went in the circumstances and manner of a spy; and his purpose was to persuade, if possible, a Cuban officer to betray his trust and become a traitor to his own cause.

When in these circumstances Ruiz reached Aranguren, the latter was so distressed that it is said he burst into tears and, embracing his old friend, exclaimed, "Why have you come? It will mean your certain death! I cannot save you!" And such indeed was the case. Aranguren was devoted to his friend, but still more to Cuba. Ruiz was taken before a court martial. He[{92}] made no defence. He admitted the character and purpose of his errand. And he received the sentence of death with the fortitude of a brave man. An attempt was made by the Spanish authorities to exploit Ruiz as a martyr to Cuban savagery, but it recoiled upon their own heads. It was shown that they had unworthily employed a brave and devoted soldier in a discreditable errand, and that he had been dealt with according to the stern but just rules of war. It was also demonstrated that Cuban patriots were not thus to be corrupted. By a strange turn of fate, only a few weeks later Nestor Aranguren was killed by the Spanish during one of his daring raids against Havana. It was said that he was betrayed by a Spaniard who had become one of his followers for the purpose of avenging Ruiz. His body fell into the hands of the Spanish, and, despite their former assumed wrath over the execution of Ruiz, they treated it with all respect and interred it in the Columbus Cemetery at Havana, close to the grave of Ruiz.

This was not the only incident of the sort. Only a few weeks after the death of Ruiz a civilian named Morales went to the camp of Pedro Ruiz, in the Province of Pinar del Rio, with proposals for compromise on the basis of autonomy. He was promptly taken before a court martial, tried, condemned, and put to death. Whether Blanco himself was responsible for this policy of sending emissaries to the Cuban camp with proposals which he would not venture to make openly in an accredited manner to the Cuban government, did not appear. The presumption, because of his known character, is that he was not, and indeed that he was not aware that they were being made. There is even reason for thinking that after the Morales case was brought to[{93}] his attention, he prohibited any more such clandestine and illegal enterprises. Tragic as the incidents were, and especially regrettable as was the sacrifice of such a man as Ruiz, it was well to have it made unmistakably clear that the Cubans were not inclined to end the war by surrender or by compromise, but were intent upon fighting it out to the end.

In such circumstances Blanco strove for the last time to defeat the Cuban national desire for independence. He probably realized in advance the certainty of failure. He had been Captain-General before, succeeding Campos after the Ten Years' War and during the Little War, and he must have known the temper of the Cuban people and the unwillingness of the great majority of them to accept the delusive scheme of autonomy which Spain was fitfully offering, and in which he himself never had any real faith and which, indeed, he had never favored. But he was a loyal Spanish soldier, of the better type, and he was personally as little odious to the Cubans as any Spanish Captain General could be, for he had never been notably tyrannical or cruel. The decree of autonomy was adopted by the Spanish government on November 25, 1897, largely because of the urgings—to use no stronger term—of the United States, and was promulgated by Blanco in Cuba early in December. The scheme provided for universal suffrage; a bi-cameral Legislature consisting of a Council of eighteen elected members and seventeen appointed by the crown, and a House containing one elected member for each 25,000 inhabitants. To this Legislature were nominally committed most of the functions of government. But it was provided that "The supreme government of the colony shall be exercised by a Governor-General." That was[{94}] the crux of the whole matter. That made the Captain-General, or Governor-General as he was thereafter to be called, the practical dictator of the island.

To this entirely illusive and delusive scheme, the remnant of the Autonomist party gave adherence with a devotion worthy of a better cause. The Reformist faction of the Spanish party also, though not so readily, approved it. The intransigent Constitutionalists would have none of it. Tenuous and futile as were its apparent concessions to the Cubans, they were far too much for these insular Bourbons to be willing to grant. They socially ostracised Blanco, and before the system was to go into effect they called a convention at Havana to protest and to foment against it. The president of the party, the Cuban-born Marquis de Apezteguia, was indeed in favor of giving autonomy a trial. But he could not control the party whose other members were almost unanimously against it. They had defeated and expelled Campos. Now they resolved to do the same with Blanco. At the convention Apezteguia was rebuked and repudiated, though left in office. A telegram of sympathy was sent to Weyler. Speeches were made denouncing the United States, its President and its Congress. A resolution was adopted condemning and opposing autonomy, and another declaring that Constitutionalists would not vote nor take any part in public affairs.

ANTONIO GOVIN

Antonio Govin, born at Matanzas in 1849 and deceased in Havana in 1914, was a jurist, publicist, orator and patriot of distinction. He was Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Havana, and was the author of a number of volumes on law and on Colonial history. He was one of the founders and strong advocates of the Autonomist party and a member of the Autonomist cabinet.

In the face of these circumstances, Blanco organized his Autonomist Cabinet. The date was January 1, 1898. The place was the historic throne room of the Captain-General's palace. There were present beside the Cabinet the various foreign consuls and the dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church. A small crowd of the people gathered outside, but the public in general paid little attention to the event. Yet the Cabinet which then came[{95}] into brief existence was a body of men that in other circumstances would have commanded most favorable attention. The nominal head, President of the Cabinet without portfolio, was José Maria Galvez, a lawyer and orator, the author of the Autonomist manifestoes of 1879 and 1895. The real head, the most forceful and influential member, not only, indeed, of the Cabinet but of the whole Autonomist party, was Dr. Rafael Montoro, the "Cuban Castelar" as his friends used to call him. He had long been an advocate of real autonomy, he had been the chief founder of the Autonomist party, he had been a Cuban Deputy to the Spanish Cortes, he had signed the Autonomist manifestoes of 1879 and 1895, and he had approved the insular reforms proposed by Canovas del Castillo. As lawyer, orator, scholar, writer, he had no superior if indeed a peer in Cuba. It was the inscrutable tragedy of a great career that he identified himself with the Autonomist movement. He was Minister of Finance. The Minister of Justice was Antonio Govin, also one of the original Autonomists, a man of great courage and ability, who on the failure of the Autonomist regime left Cuba and settled in the United States. Francisco Zayas, an accomplished educator, was made Minister[{96}] of Instruction. Laureano Rodriguez, a Peninsular Spaniard, was Minister of Agriculture, Labor and Commerce. Eduardo Dolz, a Reformist, was also a member, who was supposed to be the special representative of the Spanish crown. Two other men, not Ministers but high in Autonomist councils, Senors Amblard and Giberga, were regarded by the Spanish party as traitors who were really in league with the Revolutionists. Blanco swore in these Ministers, addressed them with an exhortation to support autonomy and to suppress the revolution, and gave them as the watchword of their administration "Long live Cuba, forever Spanish!"

For a few days the glamor and the illusion lasted. Some inconspicuous revolutionists yielded to Spanish blandishments and surrendered; to whom the honest and chivalrous Blanco granted in good faith the amnesty which he had promised. Some Cuban refugees returned from the United States. The Autonomists—the few who still remained; for the majority had by this time joined the Revolutionists, gone into exile, or been imprisoned—declared their adherence to the new order of affairs and professed satisfaction with it. Apparently they accepted at face value the explanations which were voluminously put forth by the government, to the effect that the system was practically identical with that of Canada, under which that country had long been contented, loyal and prosperous. Technically, no doubt, there was a tolerably close analogy between the two. It was quite true that the powers reserved to the Spanish crown in Cuba through the Governor-General were similar to those reserved to the British crown in Canada through the Viceroy. But the decisive factor in the case, which the Autonomists apparently ignored, was this, that while in Canada it was an unwritten but unbroken law[{97}] that the crown did not exercise its powers save in accordance with the will of the people, it was morally certain that in Cuba the Spanish crown would exercise its powers to the full, whether the people liked it or not. The Cuban Autonomists in the United States, where many of them deemed it prudent to remain, did not suffer from the illusions of their compatriots in Cuba, and generally expressed dissatisfaction with the scheme, or at least reserved their judgment upon it.

The Spanish Reformists in Cuba also approved the scheme. They had deserted and betrayed Campos, and had been ignored by Weyler. Now they struggled to return to public recognition and influence. True, they had never before wanted or approved autonomy. But they saw that now they must do so or remain in retirement. So they joined hands with the Cuban Autonomists, congratulated the Spanish government, and pledged their loyalty to Blanco. This gave the Spanish government ground for its exultant belief that these two parties had united in its support, and would probably control the island in behalf of autonomy.

But there were still the Constitutionalists to be reckoned with. They were implacable. They had shown in their convention a few weeks before their hostility to autonomy. They had ostracised Blanco. Now they proceeded to further extremes. They organized riotous disturbances in Havana, and made violent demonstrations against Blanco and, which was in some respects more serious, against the American government and the American citizens in Cuba. So ominous did these disturbances become at the middle of January that the Consul-General, Fitzhugh Lee, was driven to request the sending of a war ship to Havana harbor for the protection of American citizens. In consequence, on January[{98}] 24 the cruiser Maine was sent to Havana. This action was taken after consultation with the Spanish government, in which that government expressed great pleasure at the prospect of thus having a friendly visit of the American vessel to Cuban waters, and arranged to have its own cruiser the Vizcaya make a return visit to New York.

This was not satisfactory, however, to the Spanish Minister at Washington, Senor Dupuy de Lome, who having failed to bring President McKinley to his own point of view of Cuban affairs, showed plainly his animosity against that gentleman, and wrote a letter to a personal friend characterizing the President as a vacillating and time-serving politician. This letter through some clandestine means was placed in the hands of the United States Secretary of State, who at once sent for the Minister and asked him plumply if he had written it. The latter of course acknowledged that he had. Thereupon the Secretary cabled to the American Minister at Madrid to request the Spanish government to recall the offending envoy. This the Spanish government would doubtless have done, but for the fact that De Lome forestalled such action by cabling his resignation an hour before the dispatch of the Secretary of State reached Madrid. The Spanish government then sent Senor Polo y Bernabe to be its Minister at Washington.

THE BAY AND HARBOR OF HAVANA

The capital of Cuba is seated upon the shore of a spacious and beautiful bay, the entrance to which is between the two bold headlines crowned respectively by the Morro Castle and La Punta fortress, while the domes and spires of the great city have for a background the central mountain range of the island. The harbor of Havana is one of the most secure and commodious in the world, and in commercial importance, measured by tonnage of shipping, ranks among the foremost in the Western Hemisphere.

There next occurred the greatest and most mysterious tragedy of the entire revolutionary period. On the evening of February 15, at twenty minutes before ten o'clock, a violent explosion occurred under or in the forward portion of the Maine as she lay in Havana harbor, sufficient to lift the hull some distance above its normal level. A few seconds later another and more violent explosion followed, which so completely destroyed the forward part[{99}] of the ship that most of it could never be found. The remainder of the vessel almost immediately sank, in about six fathoms of water. Of the complement of 360, two officers and 264 men were killed, and of the remainder 60 were wounded. Captain Sigsbee, commander of the Maine, telegraphed to Washington that all judgment upon the matter should be suspended until after full investigation. Blanco telegraphed to Madrid that the catastrophe was doubtless due to an accident within the ship, and the Madrid government promptly expressed regret and sympathy.

In the United States there was a great outburst of grief and rage. Even the most restrained and conservative could not help a degree of suspicion of foul play, though of course not on the part of the Spanish government. A semi-criminal faction, in the "yellow" press, clamored furiously for war, charging Spaniards, even the Spanish government, with direct and malicious responsibility for the tragedy, and even publishing the grossest of falsehoods for the sake of inflaming popular sentiment. Too large a proportion of the nation was swayed by these latter sordid and sinister influences. But at least the government kept its head, and acted with admirable discretion; though for so doing the President incurred the virulent animosity of the chief clamorer for war, an animosity which was persistently maintained until it culminated in the incitement of a criminal Anarchist to assassinate the President.

When the explosion occurred, and Blanco learned what it was, it is said that he shed tears and exclaimed, "This is the beginning of the end!" Despite his message to his government, he probably feared that there had been foul play, and he realized what effect, in any case, the incident would have upon Spanish-American[{100}] relations. As for the Cuban revolutionists, both in Cuba and in the United States, they were almost stunned by two emotions. The hideous atrocity of the thing was overwhelming, and they grieved at the loss of the American sailors as though they themselves had been Americans. At the same time they could not be blind nor insensible to the almost certain sequel. They felt that, as Blanco said, it was the beginning of the end, and that now American intervention was practically assured.

The Spanish government proposed a joint investigation into the disaster, but the United States government declined and conducted a thorough investigation of its own, through a board of eminent official experts. The report was that the loss of the ship was not due to any accident or to any negligence on the part of the officers and crew. The first explosion was external to the hull, as if caused by a torpedo or mine, and it caused the second explosion, which was that of the ship's magazines. The Spanish government then conducted an investigation of its own, resulting in a report that both explosions were within the ship and were presumably purely accidental. It may be added that a final examination in after years, when a cofferdam was built about the hulk and it was floated and then taken out to sea and sunk in deep water, fully confirmed the report of the American investigating board.

It is to be recalled that Ramon O. Williams, who had only a little while before retired from the office of American Consul-General at Havana, and was particularly well informed and judicious, earnestly warned the United States government against sending a ship to Havana, because the harbor was very elaborately mined, and there was a bitter and truculent feeling among the Spaniards against the United States; wherefore the danger of some[{101}] untoward occurrence was too great to be incurred without a more pressing necessity than was then apparent. But despite his warning the Maine was sent. She was conducted by a Spanish official pilot to her anchorage at a buoy between Regla and the old custom house. Whether a mine was attached to that buoy or not is unknown, though Mr. Williams was confident that one was. His theory was that some malignant Spanish officer, who had access to the keyboard of the mines, perhaps through connivance with some other fanatic, watched to see the tide swing the ship directly over the mine and then touched the key and caused the explosion. That would account for the enormous hole which was blown in the side of the ship, and which could not have been caused by any little mine or torpedo which might have been floated to the side of the ship, but must have been produced by a very large mine planted deep beneath the hull.

The findings of the American board of investigation were reported officially to the Spanish government, and the President in a message to Congress expressed confidence that Spain would act in the matter according to the dictates of justice, honor and friendship. The Spanish government replied that it would certainly do so, and it presently proposed to submit the whole subject to investigation by impartial experts, and to determination by arbitration. But this proposal was not made until April 10, when so much else had occurred to strain relations between the two countries that it could not be entertained by the United States.

Meantime the Autonomist government in Cuba, with a devotion that was pathetic to behold, persisted in its efforts to justify its existence. An electoral census was taken, though of course it could not cover more than a[{102}] small fraction of the island, and on March 27 an "election" of Cuban Deputies to the Cortes was held. In fact there was no popular voting at all. A list was prepared of eligible candidates, twenty of them being Autonomists and Reformists, or supporters of the government, and ten representing the Constitutionalist opposition. The list was submitted to the Governor-General and approved by him, and the candidates were declared to have been duly elected. Jose Maria Galvez, the president of the Autonomist cabinet, reported to the President of the United States that the new government was satisfactorily performing its functions, and entreated him to give no encouragement to the revolutionists which would militate against its success. In April there was another "election" for members of the two houses of the Insular Legislature. On May 4 that Legislature met, chose Fernando del Casco as President of the Assembly, and confirmed the Autonomist cabinet in its place; and it continued patiently and valiantly to hold sessions, make laws, and act as though it were a real government, exercising real authority over the island, all through the period of the American war with Spain and the practical siege of the island by the American navy. When the Spanish forces yielded and a protocol for peace was signed, on August 12, the Legislature held its last meeting, and was declared dissolved by Blanco in October. The Autonomist Cabinet continued to exercise its functions, at least nominally, until the end of Spanish sovereignty in Cuba.[{103}]

CHAPTER VII

There could be no greater mistake than that which has been too often and too persistently made, in regarding the destruction of the Maine as the cause of American, intervention in Cuba. The declarations of policy which we have already quoted from the messages of President Cleveland and President McKinley, the former fourteen months and the latter two months before that vessel went to Havana, are ample indications of the purpose of the American government to intervene unless there were a satisfactory amelioration of Cuban affairs. But there was no such amelioration, and therefore war was declared. It unquestionably would have been declared just the same, perhaps at a later and perhaps at an earlier date, if there had been no Maine at all.

Beginning before the destruction of the Maine, and accelerated after that event, both sides were preparing for war. Nevertheless diplomatic negotiations continued, chiefly conducted by the American Minister, Stewart L. Woodford, at Madrid. In order to facilitate such negotiations, President McKinley withheld the report on the Maine from Congress for a time. Spain asked that the pacification of Cuba, which the United States was urging, be left to the Autonomist Legislature, which was to meet on May 4. The United States, declaring that it did not want Cuba but did want peace in Cuba, proposed an armistice to begin at once and to last until October 1, itself meantime to act as mediator between the Cubans and Spain. Spain replied that an[{104}] armistice would be granted, to last at the pleasure of the Spanish commander, if the Cubans would ask for it themselves; and that already General Blanco had abandoned the "concentration" system. This was of course regarded as entirely unsatisfactory to the United States, but the peace-loving President McKinley hesitated to report to Congress his dissatisfaction with it.

Meantime the Pope semi-officially expressed to both governments his earnest desire for the maintenance of peace; but to no effect. The German government, strongly sympathizing with Spain and seeking to foment ill-feeling between the United States and Great Britain, had its Ambassador at Washington, Dr. Von Holleben, form a cabal of the chief members of the Diplomatic Corps, to call on the President with what amounted to a suggestion of mediation, maliciously persuading the British Ambassador to act as spokesman of the delegation, in order that any resentment or odium should fall upon him and his country; but the President with admirable temper and resolution declined with thanks all foreign meddling in a controversy which concerned only the United States and Spain. The Spanish government proclaimed on April 10 a suspension of hostilities, in deference to the wishes of the Pope and of the great European powers. It was reported officially to the United States government that this armistice was granted without conditions, though General Blanco's proclamation declared that it was to continue only at the pleasure of the Spanish commanders. The Cuban government, through Maximo Gomez, replied that it had not sought the armistice and would not accept it unless Spain agreed to evacuate Cuba.

The President of the United States at last, on April 11, laid the whole matter before Congress in a message[{105}] which for calm moderation in the presence of unspeakable provocation, for convincing logic, for lofty and unselfish benevolence, for keen and just perception of existing conditions, and for valorous resolution to deal with them in the only satisfactory way, must take high rank among the great historic state documents of the world. After reviewing the story of the Cuban revolution and the condition into which it had plunged the island, he said: "The war in Cuba is of such a nature that, short of subjugation or extermination, a military victory for either side seems impracticable." Then, recounting the efforts of the United States to effect a just settlement by negotiation, he added: "The only hope of relief and repose from a condition which can no longer be endured is the enforced pacification of Cuba. In the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in behalf of endangered American interests which give us the right and duty to speak and to act, the war in Cuba must stop. In view of these facts and these considerations I ask the Congress to authorize and empower the President to take measures to secure a full and final termination of hostilities between the government of Spain and the people of Cuba, and to secure in the island the establishment of a stable government capable of maintaining order and observing its international obligations, insuring peace and tranquillity and the security of its citizens as well as our own, and to use the military and naval forces of the United States as may be necessary for these purposes."

It is to be observed that the President spoke of the war "between the government of Spain and the Cuban people"—the Cuban people, not the Cuban government. There had as yet been no official recognition of the Cuban government, either as independent or as belligerent, and the President could therefore not properly refer[{106}] to it. At the same time he spoke of "the Cuban people" and not of merely a part of them, recognizing by inference that fact that the Cuban people were substantially a unit in revolting against Spain and in demanding independence.

Spain made it dear that she bitterly resented what she regarded as the unwarrantable meddling of the United States in Cuban affairs, and that she would prefer war to yielding to that meddling. France and Austria, at German suggestion, made one more effort at mediation by the great powers, but abandoned it when Great Britain refused to have anything to do with it and indicated clearly her sympathy with the United States.

Finally, on April 20 President McKinley signed the act of Congress which was made in response to his message of April 11. That memorable act, the Magna Charta of the Cuban Republic, declared that the people of Cuba were and of right ought to be free and independent; that it was the duty of the United States to demand, and it accordingly did demand, that Spain should immediately relinquish her authority and government in Cuba and withdraw her military and naval forces from that island and its waters; that the President be authorized to employ the army and navy of the United States as might be necessary to carry these resolutions into effect; and that the United States disclaimed any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over Cuba, except for the pacification thereof, and asserted its determination, when that was accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to its people.

Before signing this act the President cabled its substance to General Woodford at Madrid, in an ultimatum to the Spanish government, giving Spain three days in[{107}] which to comply with the demands. Before the three days expired the Spanish Minister at Washington asked for his passports and departed, and the Spanish government notified General Woodford that diplomatic relations between the two countries were at an end. He thereupon took his passports and departed. It should be added that on April 21 the Autonomist government of Cuba issued a proclamation to the people of the island, urging them to unite in support of the Spanish government in its resistance to the war of conquest which the United States was about to wage for the seizure and annexation of the island. The success of the United States, it added, would mean that Cuba would be subjugated, dominated and absorbed by an alien race, opposed to Cubans in temperament, traditions, language, religion and customs.

Thus the War of Independence entered a new and final phase, with the armed might of the United States assisting that Cuban cause the success of which had already become practically certain. The Cuban army rapidly grew in numbers and improved in morale, and was of course abundantly supplied with arms and ammunition, while the sending of reenforcements and supplies to the Spaniards was interfered with by the United States navy. As soon as the state of war began three United States agents were sent to Cuba, to investigate the condition and strength of the revolutionary army, and to arrange for its reenforcement and for cooperation between it and the American troops. Lieutenant Henry Whitney was thus sent to visit Maximo Gomez in the centre of the island; Lieutenant A. S. Rowan was sent to Oriente, and Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Dorst was sent to Pinar del Rio.

Lieutenant Whitney reached the camp of Gomez in Santa Clara Province on April 28, found affairs in a most promising state, and arranged for the prompt forwarding[{108}] of supplies and of a considerable company of Cubans who had been enlisted in the United States for the revolutionary army. Gomez had an effective force of 3,000 men, and reenforcements of 750 under General Lacret, with supplies of food and munitions, were promised him. But the expeditions, in two steamers, failed to reach him, and after waiting for them on the coast for two weeks, until his supplies of food were exhausted, he was compelled to disband his army. Domingo Mendez Capote, Vice-President of the Cuban Republic, hastened to Washington, to explain to the government the urgent need of sending supplies, and as a result renewed efforts were made to land expeditions, but with little success.

The mission of Lieutenant-Colonel Dorst to Pinar del Rio was similarly unsuccessful. A few United States troops were landed under protection of the fire of gunboats, on May 12, but an attempt to deliver a great cargo of rifles and cartridges to the Cubans was defeated by the Spaniards, and the American troops were compelled to return to their ship and depart.

In Oriente Lieutenant Rowan was more successful, owing to the fact that few Spanish forces remained in that province. He found the Spanish, indeed, in possession of only the three towns of Santiago, Bayamo and Manzanillo, and the forts along the railroad; and on April 29 they evacuated Manzanillo, which was thereupon occupied by Calixto Garcia. Lieutenant Rowan reported to Washington that Garcia was able to put 8,000 efficient troops in the field, and presently considerable supplies were sent to him with little difficulty.

Perhaps the most significant information obtained by these American envoys, and particularly by Lieutenant Whitney in his visit to the Cuban Commander in Chief, was that the Cubans, while exulting in American intervention,[{109}] did not welcome but rather deprecated American invasion of the island. Maximo Gomez said frankly that he would prefer that not a single American soldier should set foot on the island, unless it were a force of artillery, which was an arm in which the Cubans were sorely lacking. All he asked was that the United States should supply the Cubans with arms and ammunition, and prevent supplies from reaching the Spaniards. If that were done, the Cubans would do the rest, and would expel the Spanish from the island without the loss of a single drop of American blood.

The reasons for this reluctance to have American troops invade the island were chiefly two. One was a certain praiseworthy pride in Cuban achievements and a desire to retain for Cubans the credit of winning their own independence. Gomez and his comrades had been fighting to that end for years, and they wanted the satisfaction of completing the job and of gaining for Cuba herself the glory of victory. The other reason was the very natural fear that American invasion and occupation of the island would mean American annexation, or at least perpetual American domination of Cuban affairs. It seemed contrary to human nature, contrary to all the experience and examples of the past, that it should not be so. Of course, there was the promise in the act of intervention, that the United States would leave the government of the island to its own people. But it is probable that only a very small percentage of Cubans ever so much as heard of it, while it would be surprising if more than a small minority of those who did know of it had any real confidence that it would be fulfilled. It will be recalled that a very considerable proportion of the people of the United States regarded that pledge as mere "buncombe" and declared unhesitatingly that it would not be permitted[{110}] for one moment to stand in the way of the annexation of Cuba. Truly, it would have been miraculous if Cubans had esteemed the integrity of an American promise more highly than Americans themselves.

The first weeks of the war were confined chiefly to naval operations. A blockade of Cuban ports was established and pretty well maintained, beginning along the central and western part of the north coast on April 22. A number of small Spanish vessels were captured, and there were some bombardments of shore towns and exchanges of shots with Spanish gunboats. Despite the vigilance of the American scouts and blockading squadrons, Admiral Cervera with several powerful Spanish warships, sailing from Cadiz on April 8 and touching at Martinique on May 11, succeeded in entering the harbor of Santiago on May 19. There he was soon besieged by a more powerful American fleet under the command of Commodore, afterward Admiral, Schley; who on June 1 was joined by Admiral Sampson, who thereafter took command. Lieutenant Victor Blue was sent ashore on June 11, to make a long detour to the hills back of the city, from which he was able to see and identify the Spanish ships. Meantime Lieutenant Richmond P. Hobson with seven picked men in the early morning of[{111}] June 3 took the big coal hulk Merrimac in to the narrowest part of the harbor entrance and there sunk it with a torpedo, hoping thus to block the passage and prevent Cervera's ships from coming out. The exploit was not entirely successful, the vessel not being sunk at quite the right point, though it did make exit much more difficult. Hobson and his comrades were taken prisoners by the Spaniards, but were treated with distinguished courtesy and consideration in recognition of their daring exploit. Thereafter the blockading fleet kept close watch day and night upon the harbor mouth, brilliantly illuminating it with searchlights all night, to prevent the escape of the Spanish fleet.

Meanwhile General Nelson A. Miles, commander of the United States army, was preparing for an invasion of the island. The Fifth Army Corps was organized at Tampa, Florida, under the command of Major-General William R. Shafter, and on June 14 was embarked on a fleet of 37 transports. This fleet sailed around Cape Maysi to the southern coast of Cuba, and on June 21 was off Santiago. General Shafter and Admiral Sampson went ashore to confer with General Calixto Garcia at his camp at Acerradero, and found the situation by no means as encouraging as they had hoped. Garcia had only about 3,500 Cubans in his force, and they were not all well armed, and there were 1,000 more at Guantanamo. General Shafter's army numbered fewer than 16,000 men. Against these the Spaniards under General Linares numbered about 40,000.

Averse as the Cubans had been to the landing of American troops, General Garcia accepted the inevitable, and promptly offered to place all his men under General Shafter's command. General Shafter accepted the offer, though he reminded General Garcia that he could exercise[{112}] no control over the troops beyond what he, Garcia, authorized. He of course saw to it that they were abundantly supplied with arms and ammunition, Garcia's troops were then employed very effectively in protecting the landing of the American troops, at Daiquiri; 6,000 of them being put ashore on June 22 and the remainder in the next two days. General Henry W. Lawton promptly led the advance to Siboney, from which the Spaniards were driven, being pursued after their evacuation by the Cubans under General Castillo.

The next attack was made upon the Spaniards at Las Guasimas, an action in which material aid was rendered by Cubans, and which resulted in the Spaniards being driven back a mile or more. By June 25 the Americans were on the Ridge of Sevilla, looking down upon Santiago, only six miles away, and two days later their outposts were within three miles of the city. There followed on July 1 a desperate contest at the fortified village of El[{113}] Caney, resulting in the capture of that place by storm, with great slaughter of the Spanish, who held their ground with stubborn valor. Simultaneously an attack was made by another part of the American forces upon Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill, where heavy losses were sustained on both sides. The climax of this engagement was a charge of Wheeler's division, the Tenth Cavalry, against the Spanish entrenched lines. The van of this division was occupied by the "Rough Riders" regiment, an organization recruited chiefly among western plainsmen and "cowboys" by Theodore Roosevelt, who had resigned the Assistant Secretaryship of the Navy thus to engage in active service. The charge was led by Colonel Roosevelt in person, though he was in fact second in command of the regiment, the chief command of which he had declined in favor of his friend Leonard Wood, who was destined to play one of the greatest parts in the establishment of Cuban independence. In this hot engagement the Americans were also completely victorious.

General Pando was now rushing 8,000 Spanish troops from the west to reinforce General Linares at Santiago, and Calixto Garcia with his Cuban forces undertook to hold him in check, though he was greatly outnumbered by the Spanish. On July 2 fighting was resumed, the Spanish assuming the aggressive, and before the day was done the Americans, greatly outnumbered and exhausted by the incessant fighting and the heat of the weather, began seriously considering withdrawal from positions which they feared they would not be able to hold. General Shafter[{114}] urged Admiral Sampson to aid him by making an attack upon the city with his fleet, but the latter demurred on account of the danger of entering a mined harbor. It was arranged that the two commanders should meet again for another council of war on the morning of July 3, and Admiral Sampson actually started up the coast toward Siboney for that purpose, when a dramatic event in a twinkling transformed the whole situation.

This was the unexpected emergence of the Spanish fleet from the Santiago harbor, on the morning of July 3, in a desperate attempt to break through the American blockade and fight their way around to Havana. In Admiral Sampson's temporary absence the command devolved upon Admiral Schley, and orders instantly were given to close in and engage the Spanish ships. The latter[{115}] were four in number, the Maria Teresa, the Vizcaya, the Colon and the Oquendo, with two torpedo boats, Pluton and Terror. Admiral Sampson quickly retraced his course but did not arrive until the close of the fight, which raged for hours, along the coast for fifty miles westward from Santiago. The result was the destruction of every one of the Spanish ships and the killing of one-third of their crews. Admiral Cervera with 1,200 men surrendered. On the American side only one man was killed and three were wounded, and not one of the ships was seriously damaged.

The Spaniards now knew that Santiago was doomed, though they continued to hold out with stubborn valor. On the night of July 4 they sank a vessel in the harbor mouth, in emulation of Hobson's deed, to shut the American fleet out, but failed to get it in the right place. Preparations were made for a joint attack by army and fleet on July 9, a truce being arranged until that date, and thereafter more or less continuous fighting prevailed, without important results, for three days. On July 12 General Toral, who had taken the Spanish command in place of General Linares, who was wounded at San Juan Hill, entered into negotiations with General Miles and General Wheeler, and on July 17 terms of surrender were adopted. All the Spanish troops in Oriente save 10,000 at Holguin, were surrendered, about 22,000 in all. Some minor naval operations followed at Manzanillo and Nipe, but there was no more serious fighting. For all practical purposes the war was ended.[{116}]

The next step was taken in behalf of Spain by the French Ambassador at Washington, Spain having committed to the French government the care of her diplomatic interests in America. M. Cambon on July 26 inquired of President McKinley if he would consider negotiations for peace. The President replied on July 30 that he was willing to discuss peace on the basis of certain conditions, the first of which was that Spain should relinquish all claim of sovereignty over or title to the island of Cuba, and should immediately evacuate that island. That was significant. It indicated that the United States purposed to fulfil its pledge concerning the independence of Cuba. The next condition was that Spain should cede to the United States the island of Porto Rico. But there was no hint at her cession of Cuba to the United States. She was merely to renounce her own sovereignty. These[{117}] conditions were accepted by the Spanish government through M. Cambon on August 12; the naval and military commanders on both sides were ordered to cease hostilities, the blockade of Cuba was discontinued; and the War of Independence was at a triumphant end.[{118}]

CHAPTER VIII

Following the protocol and the cessation of hostilities, two major tasks were to be performed. One was to remove the Spanish forces from the island and to establish permanent terms of peace, and the other was to organize and establish a permanent Cuban government.

The former of these was promptly undertaken, by the governments of the United States and Spain. A joint commission arranged the details of evacuation, which was a formidable undertaking because of the number of persons to be transported and the paucity of shipping facilities at the command of the Peninsular government. The city of Havana was not evacuated until January 1, 1899, and the last Spanish troops were not removed from the island until the middle of February following. There were about 130,000 officers and soldiers transported, together with some 15,000 military and civilian employes and their families.

Simultaneously the task of treaty-making proceeded. President McKinley on August 26 appointed five Commissioners to conduct the negotiations. They were William R. Day, Secretary of State, Chairman; Cushman K. Davis, Senator; William P. Frye, Senator; Whitelaw Reid, Ambassador; and Edward D. White, Justice of the Supreme Court. Mr. White found himself unable to serve, and on September 9 George Gray, Senator, was appointed in his place. The Spanish government named as Commissioners five of Spain's foremost statesmen: Eugenio Montero Rios, Buenaventura d'Abarzuza, Jose de Garnica, Wenceslao Ramirez de Villa Urrutia, and[{119}] Rafael Cerero. The Commissioners began their deliberations in Paris on October 1.

The first question discussed was the disposition of Cuba, and over it strong disagreement arose on two major points. The Spanish Commissioners declined to recognize the existence of any Cuban government, and argued that as there was no such government, and as Spain in relinquishing sovereignty over the island could not let that sovereignty lapse but must transfer it to some other responsible and competent power, the United States should accept cession of Cuba to it; which Spain was willing to grant. The American Commissioners replied that the United States was pledged not to annex the island, and as a matter of fact did not intend to do so and therefore could not and would not accept cession of the island to itself. Spain in the protocol had agreed to renounce her sovereignty without any stipulations further, and by that arrangement she must abide. The United States would, however, make itself responsible for the due observance of international law in Cuba so long as its occupation of the island lasted. The Spaniards were reluctant to yield, as a matter of pride and sentiment preferring to give Cuba to the United States rather than to surrender it to the insurgent Cubans. But the American Commissioners were resolute, and on October 27 the first article of the treaty was adopted; to wit:

"Spain relinquishes all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba.

"And as the island is, on its evacuation by Spain, to be occupied by the United States, the United States will, so long as such occupation shall last, assume and discharge the obligations that may under international law result from the fact of its occupation for the protection of life and property."[{120}]

This was clear and unmistakable notice to the world that the American government intended to fulfil its pledge, not to annex Cuba but to render that island to the control and government of its own people. True, not yet were all convinced that this would be done. The Spaniards were courteously skeptical. A considerable faction in the United States, half "Jingo" and half sordid, insisted that the island must be annexed. The majority of Cubans, inclined to judge all governments by their bitter experiences with that of Spain, were frankly incredulous, not understanding how any government could be thus altruistic and self-denying.

The second point of dispute was that of the Cuban debt. The Spanish government for years had been charging against Cuba the cost of maintaining an army for its subjugation and the costs of suppressing the various insurrections that had occurred, and the Commissioners proposed that all that enormous debt should be saddled upon the island and made a first charge upon its customs revenues. To this the American Commissioners demurred. Cuba had for centuries been "the milch cow of Spain," and had given to Spain far more than she had ever received in return. It would be monstrous injustice to burden a people with the cost of subjugating them and keeping them in slavery. In the end the Spanish Commissioners yielded, and no mention was made in the treaty of any debt resting upon Cuba.

It was further agreed that both parties should release and repatriate all prisoners of war, and that the United States would undertake to obtain such release of all Spanish prisoners held by the Cubans. Each party relinquished all claims for indemnity of any and every kind which had arisen since the beginning of the Cuban war. Spain relinquished in Cuba all immovable property belonging[{121}] to the public domain and to the crown of Spain; such relinquishment not impairing lawful property rights of municipalities, corporations or individuals. Spanish subjects were to be free to remain in Cuba or to remove therefrom, in either event retaining full property rights; and in the former case being free to become Cuban citizens or to retain their allegiance to Spain; and they were to be secured in the free exercise of their religion. There were various other stipulations, such as are customary in treaties, intended to assure Spain and Spaniards of equitable treatment and relationships in Cuba. It was added that the obligations of the United States in Cuba were to be limited to the period of its occupation of that island; but upon the termination of that occupation the United States promised to advise the succeeding Cuban government to assume the same obligations. The treaty was finally agreed to and signed on December 10, 1898, and it was ratified by the United States Senate on February 6, 1899.

General Ramon Blanco meanwhile, on November 26, 1898, resigned the Governor-Generalship of Cuba and returned to Spain. To General Jiminez Castellanos was left the unwelcome duty of holding nominal sway for a few weeks and then surrendering the sovereignty of four centuries to an alien power. Already American troops were in actual occupation and control of nearly all the island. In the latter part of December, 1898, the Seventh Army Corps, commanded by Major-General Fitzhugh Lee, was brought into the outskirts of Havana in readiness for the final function which was to be performed on the first day of the new year.

The end came. It was on January 1, 1899. Four hundred and six years, two months and three days before, the first Spaniard had landed upon Cuban soil and had[{122}] planted there the quartered flag of Leon and Castile in token of sovereignty. Now, after all that lapse of time, largely, it must be confessed, ill spent and ill-improved, the Spanish flag was finally to be lowered and withdrawn, in token of the passing away of Spanish sovereignty forever from the soil of Cuba.

The ceremonies were brief and simple; far more brief and simple, we may well believe, than were those with which the imaginative and exuberant Admiral proclaimed possession of the island centuries before. The official representatives of Spain and the United States met at noon in the Hall of State in the Governor's Palace, the scene of so many proud and imperious events in Spanish colonial history. On the one side the chief was General Jiminez Castellanos, the last successor of Velasquez. On the other, Major-General John R. Brooke. The one was the last of a long, long line of Spanish Governors-General;[{123}] the other was the first of a brief succession of American Military Governors who were soon to give way to an unending line of native Cuban Republican Presidents and Congresses. With a sad heart, with tear-suffused eyes, and with a hand that trembled to hold a pen far more than ever it had to wield a sword, General Jiminez Castellanos signed the document which abdicated and relinquished Spanish sovereignty in that Pearl of the Antilles which was nevermore to be known as the "Ever Faithful Isle." The crimson and gold barred banner of Spain descended. The Stars and Stripes rose in its place. The deed was done. The final settlement was made with Spain.

For three hundred and eighty-seven years Spain had been the sovereign of Cuba, exercising her power through one hundred and thirty-six administrations, of which the first was one of the longest and the last was one of the shortest. It will be worth our while to recall the roll, which bears some of the noblest and some of the vilest names in Spanish history:

There must be added an unwelcome note. The Spaniards—not their high officials—left most ungraciously. It is not to be wondered at that they were sad, that they were sullen, that they were resentful; that they were fearful lest the Cubans should rise against them at the last moment and inflict upon them vengeance for the treasured wrongs of many years. But there was of course no[{133}] such uprising. The Cubans wished to make the day an occasion of great public celebration, but the authorities—Cuban and American as well as Spanish—would not permit it. It was not courteous to exult over a beaten foe. Besides, any such celebration would have caused great danger of trouble. What was inexcusable, however, was the condition in which the Spanish left all public buildings. They looted and gutted them of everything that could be removed. They destroyed the plumbing and lighting fixtures. They broke or choked up the drains. They left every place in an indescribably filthy condition. There was nothing in all their record in Cuba more unbecoming than their manner of leaving it. Such was the last detail of the settlement with Spain.

The settlement with Cuba came next. Indeed, it was concurrently undertaken. And it was by far the more formidable task of the two. It was necessary to arrange for the transfer of the temporary trust of the United States to a permanent Cuban authority, and to do so in circumstances and conditions which would afford the largest possible degree of assurance of success. It is said that when the American flag was raised at Havana in token of temporary sovereignty, on January 1, 1899, an American Senator among the spectators exclaimed, "That flag will never come down!" There were also, doubtless, those among the Cuban spectators who thought and said that it should never have been raised, but that sovereignty should have been transferred directly from Spain to Cuba.

Both were wrong; as both in time came to realize. It was necessary for the sake of good faith and justice that the American flag should in time come down and give place to the flag of Cuba. It was equally necessary for the sake of the welfare of Cuba and of its future prosperity and tranquillity that there should be a period of[{134}] American stewardship preparatory to full independence.

There was, as we have already indicated, some friction between Cubans and Americans at the time of intervention in the Spring of 1898. The Cubans thought that the American army should not enter Cuba at all, save with an artillery force to serve as an adjunct to the Cuban army. On the other hand, Americans were too much inclined to disregard the Cuban army and Provisional Government, to forget what the Cubans had already achieved, and to act as though the war were solely between the United States and Spain. When the actual landing of Shafter's army was made, however, the Cubans accepted the fact loyally and gracefully, and gave the fullest possible measure of helpful cooperation.

The Provisional Government of the Cuban Republic, as soon as hostilities were ended and negotiations for peace had begun, decided to summon another National Assembly to determine what should be done during the interval which should elapse before the United States placed the destinies of Cuba in the hands of Cubans. This decision was made at a meeting at Santa Cruz on September 1, at which were present the President, Bartolome Maso; the Vice-President, Mendez Capote; and the three Secretaries, Aleman, Fonts-Sterling and Moreno de la Torre. It was felt, and not without reason, that the Insular government and its forces had not received the recognition which was their due. Calixto Garcia and Francisco Estrada had given valuable participation in the siege and capture of Santiago, yet they were not permitted by General Shafter to participate in the ceremony of the surrender of the Spanish forces, or even to be present on that exultant occasion. When the Americans thus took possession of Santiago and Oriente, the Cuban government, military and civil, was ignored, and General Leonard Wood was made Military Governor just as though there was no Cuban government in existence.

OLD AND NEW IN HAVANA

The architecture of Havana ranges from the sixteenth century to the twentieth, and specimens of all five centuries may in some places be found grouped within a single scene; with electric lights and telephones in buildings which were standing when Francis Drake threatened the city with conquest.

[{135}]

During the months of the American blockade of the island, moreover, the Cubans had suffered perhaps even more than the Spanish from lack of supplies. It was felt that while it was well thus to deprive the Spanish army of supplies, the Cuban people ought not to have been left to suffer. After the armistice affairs remained in a distressing condition. The Cuban army was without food and without pay with which to purchase food; and the Provisional Government was powerless to help it or to help the starving civilian population. It had no funds, and of course could not now raise any either by taxation or by loans. Late in November some relief was afforded by the sending of food from the United States, but on the whole the conditions were unsatisfactory, and did not conduce to cordial confidence between the Cubans and the Americans.

The National Assembly which had been called on September 1 met at Santa Cruz on November 7, and resolved upon the disbandment of the Provisional Government, and the appointment of a special Commission to look after Cuban interests during the period of American occupation. This Commission consisted of Domingo Mendez Capote, President; Ferdinand Freyre de Andrade, Vice-President; and Manuel M. Coronado and Dr. Porfirio Caliente, Secretaries. The army organization was to be retained, for the present, with General Maximo Gomez as Commander-in-Chief.

The real crux of the situation, at the moment, was the demobilization of the Cuban army. This could not be done—Gomez would not consider it—until the men could be paid, and there was no money with which to pay them.[{136}] Among the 36,000 men on the rosters, there were said to be 20,000 who had served two years or more, and who were entitled to pay. Gomez issued an appeal to the army and to the Cuban people generally to accept loyally the temporary American occupation and to cooperate with the Americans in the reestablishment of order and the development of governmental institutions, in order that at the earliest possible moment Cuba might be able to assume the whole task of self government. At the same time he urgently requested the United States government to advance money with which to pay off the soldiers, in order that the army might be disbanded and the men might return to their homes and their work, and thus restore the industrial prosperity of the island. For this purpose he suggested the sum of $60,000,000, not only for actual pay but also for compensation for the losses which the officers and men had suffered during the war. He was inclined to keep his men under arms until the United States should relinquish control of Cuba to the Cubans, or should fix a date for so doing; and toward the end of January, 1899, he mustered all his forces in the Province of Havana, and made his staff headquarters in the former palace of the Captain-General. Meantime the Commission of the Cuban National Assembly recommended that the men be granted furloughs, to enable them to go to work in response to the great demand for labor that was arising throughout the island. This course was pursued to a considerable extent.

Ultimately the United States government granted the sum of $3,000,000 for the purpose of paying off the soldiers. This was not a loan, to be repaid, but was an outright gift, being the remainder of the sum of $50,000,000 which had been voted to the President at the beginning of the war to use at his discretion. It was given on the[{137}] conditions that every recipient should prove his service in the army and should surrender a rifle. To this latter requirement, which meant the disarming of the Cubans, General Gomez strongly objected, but in the end he acquiesced and agreed to carry out the plan as soon as the money was at hand. Thereupon some other Cuban officers disputed his right to commit the Cuban army to any such arrangement. They were dissatisfied with the small amount, and they insisted that only the Cuban Assembly had power to act upon the American offer. They added that they would refuse to obey the orders of General Gomez, and would look to the Assembly for justice. It should be added that these officers were not those who had been most active and efficient in the field.

General Gomez ignored this mutinous demonstration, and proceeded with arrangements to receive and distribute the $3,000,000; whereupon the Assembly came together and on March 12 impeached General Gomez and removed him from office as Commander-in-Chief, the charge being that he had failed in his military duties and had disobeyed the orders of the Assembly. This scandalous performance was ignored by Gomez, and was condemned by the great majority of the Cuban people. It was also ignored by the American authorities. General Brooke continued his negotiations with Gomez, and finally reached an agreement. The terms were as follows: Every Cuban soldier who had been in service since before July 17, 1898, and who was not in receipt of salary from any public office, upon delivery of his arms and equipments was to receive $75 in United States gold. The arms and equipments were to be surrendered to municipal authorities, and to be placed and kept in armories, under the charge of armorers appointed by General Gomez, as memorials of the War of Independence.[{138}] The Cuban Commissioners protested against and resisted this settlement, but finally yielded when they saw all the soldiers accepting it. They continued for some time, however, to manifest disaffection and distrust toward the United States, and to propagate doubt whether that country would ever fulfill its promise to make Cuba independent. Some agitators went so far as to try to provoke insurrections against the American administration. But all such things met with no encouragement from General Gomez or from any of the real leaders of the Cuban people, who expressed the fullest confidence in the good faith of the United States and did their utmost to lead the nation to take advantage of the unparalleled opportunity which had been placed before it. Day by day the magnitude of that opportunity became more apparent, as did the practical beneficence of the American administration.[{139}]

CHAPTER IX

American occupation of Cuba, formal and complete, did not begin, as we have seen, until January 1, 1899, when the ceremonial transfer of sovereignty was effected at Havana. But nearly six months before that epochal date actual occupation and administration was begun on an extensive scale and in a most auspicious manner. With singular appropriateness this was effected at that city which nearly four centuries before had been the first capital and metropolis of the island, and in that Province which had been the scene of the first Spanish settlements in Cuba and which had been more perhaps than all the rest of the island the scene and the base of operations of the revolution for independence.

The surrender of Santiago by General Toral on July 17, 1898, made the American army master of that city and practically of the Province of Oriente. Having the power and authority of government, the Americans had necessarily to assume the full responsibility of it; and this was promptly done. Even in advance of the date named, on July 13, the day after negotiations for the capitulation began, in anticipation of what was to occur President McKinley decreed that, pending further orders, existing Spanish laws should be maintained in the occupied territory. As soon as the protocol was signed on August 12, General Henry W. Lawton was appointed Military Governor of the Province of Oriente and commander in chief of the American forces. This was an honor due to that gallant officer, because of his leadership in the act of invasion[{140}] and conquest. But Lawton was a soldier rather than an administrator, and his services were indispensable in the field. Accordingly, after brief but most honorable occupancy of the governorship, he was succeeded on September 24 by a man who combined the qualities of soldier and administrator in a uniquely successful and triumphant degree, and whose advent in Cuba was auspicious of inestimable advantage to that country and to its relations with the United States and with the world. Indeed, though the fact was unrecognized at the time, it is not too much to say that Leonard Wood bore in his hand and mind and heart the destinies of Cuba. There might, it is true, have been found some other man who as a soldier would have pacified the island and would have held it firmly in the grasp of peace. There might have been found a sanitarian and physician who would free the island of pestilence. There were financiers who might have placed its fiscal interests upon a sound basis. There were jurists who could have revised its laws. There were statesmen who could have supervised and directed its general governmental affairs, both domestic and foreign. But there was need that all these qualities should be combined in and all these activities should be performed by one man.

Leonard Wood was at this time still a young man, scarcely thirty-eight years of age. Born at Winchester, New Hampshire, the son of an eminent physician and a descendant of a Mayflower Pilgrim, he had in boyhood engaged in seafaring pursuits, and then had been thoroughly trained for the medical profession at Harvard University. Obeying the promptings of patriotism, perhaps with some unrecognized pre-intimation of the vast services which he was destined to render to his country and to the world, he turned away from prospects of professional[{141}] preferment and profit to undertake the arduous and often thankless tasks of an army surgeon. He was appointed to that duty from the state of Massachusetts on January 5, 1886, as an Assistant Surgeon, and five years later was promoted to the rank of Captain. The nominal rank is, however, a slight indication of the merit of his services, for in the very first year of his army life he was credited with "distinguished conduct in campaign against Apache Indians while serving as medical and line officer of Captain Lawton's expedition"; for which he was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

At the beginning of American intervention in the Cuban War of Independence, Theodore Roosevelt resigned the office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, which he had filled with distinction and to the great profit of the country, in order to organize from among the cowboys and frontiersmen of the West his famous regiment of "Rough Riders." But he would not himself accept the supreme command of it. His unerring judgment of men led him to select Leonard Wood for the Colonelcy, under whom he was himself glad to serve as Lieutenant-Colonel. So it was that Wood first went to Cuba, as Colonel of the First Regiment of United States Cavalry Volunteers. There soon followed the achievements at Guasimas and at San Juan Hill, to which reference has already been made, in recognition of his services in which on July 8, 1898, he was promoted to be Brigadier General, and on December 7 following to be Major General of Volunteers. It may be added that he was promoted to these same ranks in the regular army respectively on February 4, 1901 and August 8, 1903.

With these antecedents, on September 24 he entered upon the task of governing Santiago and the Province of Oriente. It was a position of unique responsibility and[{142}] power. The President's order made it incumbent upon him to administer the existing municipal laws so far as in his own judgment they were properly applicable to the new state of affairs. That was all. Otherwise he was thrown absolutely upon his own resources, with no treaty obligations or government promises to bind him. He was simply a "benevolent despot," intent upon tranquillizing and rehabilitating that vast eastern province of Cuba by methods of his own devising. It was a region at once the most unruly and the most impoverished in Cuba, and it had for its capital a plague-smitten city. For six months he labored there, and in that short period he so far advanced the work of reconstruction that thereafter Oriente served as an example and a model for all the other provinces of Cuba. Sympathetic, alert, untiring, frank, without vanity or ostentation, resolute, diplomatic, and always supremely just, General Wood's personality stood to the people of Cuba for qualities seldom if ever before associated with the occupant of the governor's palace, while his energy in fighting disease, relieving distress, reviving industry and maintaining order revealed to them as the Spanish régime never had done the beneficence of enlightened government. It would be impossible to estimate too highly the value of his services during those few months at Santiago, in commending to Cubans the benevolent purposes and attitude of the Americans toward them and in disclosing to them the vast material and moral benefits which would accrue to them through self-government wisely administered.

He began his work at Santiago in gruesome circumstances. An epidemic of smallpox and yellow fever was raging, and clouds of smoke hung over the city from the funeral pyres where were being burned many of the bodies for which burial was impossible. The city was reeking[{143}] with filth. Half the people were threatened with starvation. Lawlessness and complaints of grievances were rife. He had to be at once sanitarian, steward and judge. He labored heroically at all three tasks, and performed them so well that in a few weeks Santiago seemed like a new city. Of course there was much to do in other places in the province. In Holguin there were three thousand cases of smallpox, of which he treated 1,200 in hospitals. He sent thither as nurses 600 thoroughly vaccinated immunes, not one of whom contracted the disease. Hundreds of infected buildings, of flimsy construction, were burned, while all others were thoroughly disinfected, and the epidemic was conquered.

Early the next year General Wood sought a well earned rest in a brief visit to his former home in Boston, leaving, as he thought, affairs in Santiago in a securely satisfactory condition. But he was compelled to hasten back in July, 1899, to deal with another outbreak of disease. On his arrival he found both the city and his own army camp in the grip of malignant yellow fever. It was a time for heroic action, and that was what he performed. In a day he removed his troops to healthful places on the adjacent hills, and then subjected the city to such a cleansing and scientific sanitation as neither it nor any other Cuban city had ever known. The island and the world looked on with interest, to see if thus he could cope with and suppress the epidemic.

He succeeded. Not yet had the theory of Dr. Carlos J. Finlay, that mosquitoes were the sole propagators of the disease, been practically tested and applied, though it had been propounded by that eminent Cuban physician many years before. That immortal achievement was postponed for Messrs. Reed, Carroll, Agramonte and Lazear to effect, under General Wood's subsequent administration[{144}] at Havana. But even without it, by means of strenuous sanitation, the epidemic of July, 1899, was conquered, and Santiago was made clean and sound.

Another achievement of General Wood's at Santiago in the latter part of 1898 proved highly successful and was soon afterward extended to the other provinces of the island. This was the organization of the Rural Guards, a force which became invaluable for the policing of the rural portions of the island; just as Pennsylvania and some others of the United States are cared for by State Police. General Wood selected for this service officers and soldiers of the Cuban Army in the War of Independence who were recommended for their good character and efficiency. By the end of the year 1898 he had about 300 of these troopers patrolling the roads of Oriente, in the districts where such guardianship was most needed, with admirable results. The value of this service was observed and appreciated by the officers of the other provinces, and at the beginning of 1899 the system was introduced into all the provinces excepting Matanzas, where the same purpose was served by a mounted police force maintained by the larger municipalities. In the city of Havana the Military Governor, General Ludlow, held a conference with General Mario G. Menocal, of the Cuban Army, who had been invited to become Chief of Police in that city under the American administration, and with him worked out the details of the organization of Rural Guards in the suburbs of the capital and the rural portions of Havana Province. They formed a force of 350 men for service there, and thus quickly made all that region, even in the more or less disturbed period immediately following the war, noteworthy for its security and orderliness. When at the end of the American occupation the Rural Guards were transferred to the Cuban[{145}] Government, they comprised 15 bodies, numbering 1,605 officers and men, stationed at 247 different posts.

Meantime American occupation and administration were established throughout the island. Immediately upon the transfer of sovereignty on January 1, 1899, John R. Brooke, Major General commanding the Division of Cuba, and Military Governor, issued a proclamation to the people of the island. He told them that he came as the representative of the President, to give protection to the people and security to persons and property, to restore confidence, to build up waste plantations, to resume commercial traffic, and to afford full protection in the exercise of all civil and religious rights. To the attainment of those ends, all the efforts of the United States would be directed, in the interest and for the benefit of all the people of Cuba. The legal codes of the Spanish sovereignty were to be retained in force, with such changes and modifications as might from time to time be found necessary in the interest of good government. The people of Cuba, without regard to previous affiliations, were invited and urged to cooperate in these objects by the exercise of moderation, conciliation and good-will toward one another.

The island was divided for administrative purposes into seven departments, corresponding with the provinces and with the city of Havana forming the seventh. The commanders of these departments, under General Brooke, were: Havana City, Gen. William Ludlow; Havana Province, Gen. Fitzhugh Lee; Pinar del Rio, Gen. George W. Davis; Matanzas, Gen. James H. Wilson; Santa Clara, Gen. John C. Bates; Camaguey, Gen. L. H. Carpenter; Oriente, Gen. Leonard Wood. A civil government was organized on January 12, by the appointment of the following Cubans as Ministers of State: Secretary[{146}] of the Department of State and Government, Domingo Mendez Capote; Secretary of Finance, Pablo Desvernine; Secretary of Justice and Public Instruction, Jose Antonio Gonzalez Lanuza; Secretary of Agriculture, Commerce, Industries and Public Works, Adolfo Saenz Yanez. Later in the spring of that year the provinces of Havana and Pinar del Rio were united in one department, as were Matanzas and Santa Clara, and Camaguey and Oriente.

GONZALEZ LANUZA

A distinguished jurist, penologist, and man of letters, Gonzalez Lanuza, was born in Havana on July 17, 1865. He rose to eminence at the bar and on the bench, became professor of penal law in the University of Havana, and was the author of several important works on jurisprudence. He was an agent of the revolution in Havana in 1895, and Secretary of the Cuban Delegation in New York. During General Brooke's Governorship he was Secretary of Justice and Public Instruction, and during President Menocal's first term was Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was a delegate to the Pan-American Congress at Rio de Janeiro in 1906.

The problems which confronted the American military administrators and their Cuban colleagues of the civil government were manifold and grave. There was the work of sanitation, which was undertaken on lines similar to those which General Wood had pursued in Santiago. The city of Havana had the advantage of the services of General Ludlow, an expert engineer and sanitarian. Then there was the work of feeding a starving population. So vast had been the ravages of war, so great had been the destruction of resources, that one of the most fertile and productive countries in the world was unable for a time to provide food for its own inhabitants, although their numbers had been diminished[{147}] by one-fourth by the horrors of war. In these circumstances the American government was compelled to establish a system of food distribution, on very liberal lines. In Havana alone more than 20,000 persons were dependent upon it to save them from actual starvation. So well was the system administered, however, and so vigorously did the Cubans themselves apply themselves to self-help that within five months it was found possible to abolish the general system of food supply, and to restrict such work to such cases of special need as are liable to occur in any community.

In thus redeeming the island from threatened if not actual famine, the American government undoubtedly did much, but the Cuban people themselves did far more. Self-help and mutual aid were the order of the day. All who could do so hastened to secure employment, either upon their own property or on the land or in the establishments of others. Planters whose fields had been ravaged and whose buildings had been destroyed borrowed money wherever they could, when necessary, for rehabilitation. If they could not raise money to pay their employes, they pledged them an interest in the proceeds of the coming harvest. The small farmers, who had lost all their implements and had no money to buy others to replace them, worked almost without tools, or borrowed and loaned among themselves so that a single plow would serve for half a dozen, and even hoes and spades were similarly passed from garden to garden. In the absence of horses and mules, plows were actually drawn by teams of four or six men, in such cases doing, perhaps, little more than to scratch the surface of the soil, though even this was sufficient to enable the planting of seed.

Reference has been made to the borrowing of money by the planters for the rehabilitation of their estates. This[{148}] was no easy task, because of the extent to which they were already overburdened with debts. Nearly all the land in Cuba was mortgaged, for a large percentage of its value. The census which was taken by the American authorities in 1899 showed a total real estate valuation in the entire island of only $323,641,895. These amazingly low figures were due, of course, to the depreciation of values through the ravages of war. But upon that valuation there was an 47,915,494; or more than 76 per cent. Obviously, the borrowing capacity of Cuban real estate had been exhausted. During the war, with the impairment of industry which then prevailed, it was impossible for farmers to pay off their mortgages, and accordingly the Spanish government, in May, 1896, decreed that all mortgages then maturing should be extended for a year, during which time all legal steps for collection of them should be halted. In Oriente and Camaguey, however, the grace thus granted was for only a month. Successive extensions of the grace carried it to April, 1899, when the American administration was in control. A final extension was then granted, to April, 1901.

Still another problem, and one which proved peculiarly embarrassing, was that of local or municipal government. The island was divided into six provinces, thirty-one judicial districts, and one hundred and thirty-two municipalities, and these last named were each divided into sub-districts and these again into wards. These all had their local officials and local systems of finance, and these latter were found by the Americans to be in serious confusion. It was necessary to reform them, but in the doing of this almost endless friction arose. Such matters so closely touched the Cuban people that they were naturally jealous and resentful of alien interference and dictation.[{149}] At the same time the Americans considered it necessary to supervise the reorganization of local government as a basis for satisfactory general government. Each side became more or less irritated against the other, with unfortunate results.

An interesting personal factor at this time, whose influence was on the whole helpful to the American government, was found in General Maximo Gomez. There is no question that he felt himself somewhat ill-treated by the Americans, as Calixto Garcia had felt at the surrender of Santiago. During the first month of the American rule at the capital he held aloof, remaining at his home at Remedios. But in February he came to Havana and had such a reception as probably no other man in Cuban history had ever enjoyed. From Remedios to Havana he proceeded through an almost unbroken series of popular demonstrations of the most enthusiastic kind, and at the capital he was greeted as a conquering hero and as the unrivalled idol of the people whose independence he had won. The only discordant note came from a small body of politicians identified with that Assembly which both Gomez and the American government had declined to recognize, and which Gomez had strongly antagonized in the matter of paying off and demobilizing the Cuban army. But that opposition to him did not lessen the affection and reverence with which the great mass of the Cuban people regarded the grim and grey old champion of their wars. It is to be recorded, too, that while he was thus being received by the people, his own attitude toward them was no less significant. At every place through which he passed on his journey to Havana, and at every gathering at which he was entertained in that city, he spoke to the people, tersely and vigorously, as became a soldier; exhorting them to forget[{150}] the differences of the past, even their righteous wrath against the Spaniards, and to unite and work together harmoniously and efficiently to complete in peace the great task for Cuba's welfare which had so far been advanced in war.

The result, at least for a time, was marvellous. Cuban and Spaniard, Revolutionist, Autonomist and Constitutionalist, for a time joined hands. At one of the chief public receptions given to Gomez in Havana, the flags of Cuba, of the United States, and of Spain were equally displayed, and were all three greeted with applause. That spirit did not, it is true, always thereafter prevail. But it was of incalculable profit to Cuba to have it so strongly aroused and manifested at that crucial period in her history.

During the administration of General Brooke the police force of Havana was completely reorganized, with the assistance of John B. McCullagh, formerly Superintendent of Police in New York. This was done as promptly as possible after the installation of American rule, and by the beginning of March, 1899, the peace and security of the Cuban capital were safeguarded by an admirable uniformed force of about a thousand men. Under the command of General Mario G. Menocal as Chief this body of men rendered Havana as efficient service, probably, as that in any American city of similar size. Police work in Havana, it should be understood, differs considerably from that in cities of the United States, for the reason that drunkenness and its attendant disorder and petty brawls are substantially unknown in the Cuban metropolis, and therefore one of the most prolific causes of arrests in American cities is there non-existent.

When the American administration took charge of[{151}] Cuban affairs it found the insular treasury quite empty. The departing Spaniards had seen to that. But a careful, honest and thrifty management of finances soon provided the island with a good working income. By the first of September, 1899, fully $10,000,000 had been received in revenue from different sources. Major E. F. Ladd of the United States army was made Treasurer and Disbursing Officer of the customs service, and a little later he was appointed Auditor and then Treasurer of the island. In those capacities he showed admirable efficiency and greatly ingratiated himself with the people; ranking as one of the most successful members of the American governing staff. His administration was the more appreciated by Cubans because of the welcome reform of the taxation system which was at that time effected. The old Spanish tax system had been abominable, and that of the short-lived Autonomist regime of 1897-1898 changed it chiefly with the result of adding to the confusion. Early in 1899, therefore, radical reforms were undertaken. An order was issued on February 10 remitting all taxes due under the old Spanish law which had remained unpaid on January 1, with the exception of taxes on passengers and freight which had according to custom been collected and were held by the railroad companies. All taxes on the principal articles of food and fuel were abolished, as were also all municipal taxes on imports and exports. These taxes had formerly been very burden-some and were a source of much grievance and irritation, and their abolition was very gratifying to the Cuban people, who began to appreciate what it meant to have a government whose prime object was to serve them and not to plunder them.

One tax was greatly increased, namely, the excise tax upon all alcoholic liquors, and this was made a part of[{152}] the revenue of the municipalities instead of the state, thus compensating the municipalities for the loss of the tax on merchandise. Despite the temperate habits of the Cuban people, the very general consumption of some form of alcoholic drink made this impost amount to a considerable sum.