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CUBA 
 
 AT A GLANCE 
 
 BT 
 
 A. O'HAGAN 
 
 AND 
 
 E. B. KAUFMAN 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BT 
 
 President T. Estrada Palma 
 of the Cuban Junta 
 
 fKR 
 
 NEW YORK . R. H. RUSSELL 
 
 1898 
 
 LIVED- 
 
 <k.& 
 
rp HANKS are due the New York Journal for 
 ■*■ the use of its library and access to the letters 
 of its war correspondents. 
 
 The authors also acknowledge their indebtedness 
 to the Cuban Junta, whose original documents 
 have been of great assistance. 
 
 COPYRIGHT 1898 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT HOWARD RUSSELL 
 
 Printtd in tbt Unittd Statu of Amtrha 
 
 <o> 
 
 ■> 
 
Introduction 
 
 HISTORY proves that the inde- 
 pendence of a people has always 
 been born of sacrifice. In no in- 
 stance, however, has there been 
 such suffering, sacrifice and abnegation as was 
 demanded of the Cuban people. From 1868, 
 for ten long and bloody years, the Cubans en- 
 gaged in an unequal struggle against Spain; 
 unequal in numbers and unequal in resources. 
 Not only the patriots in arms suffered, but 
 their families and friends were sacrificed to the 
 sanguinary brutality of the Spanish command- 
 ers. 
 
 At last, when almost exhausted, Spain of- 
 fered terms, which were accepted but never 
 fulfilled. 
 
 The spirit of independence only slumbered; 
 the fires of patriotism still glowed. 
 
 On the 24th of February, 1895, the call to 
 arms again sounded. It found response in the 
 hearts of all true Cubans. 
 
 The veteran fighter was ready to make re- 
 newed sacrifices for the ideal. The youths 
 sought to emulate the noble example of their 
 sires. 
 
6 Introduction 
 
 The revolution was not entered upon blind- 
 ly. Too well had the Cubans been taught 
 what they had to expect from the soldiers of 
 Spain. There would be no mercy for the pa- 
 triot in arms, none for the sick or the wound- 
 ed. Age and sex would not stay the hand of 
 the Spaniard. The country would be ruined; 
 all would have to be sacrificed. 
 
 Yet the Cubans never faltered. Rather 
 have the country reduced to a heap of ashes 
 than the mockery of the fertility of the land 
 under Spanish rule. 
 
 The Cubans had not enjoyed the privileges 
 of men. They toiled for the benefit of the 
 Spanish tyrant and despoiler. They did not 
 live; they existed. 
 
 From out of the ash heap they would form 
 a new nation, ruled by the highest type of gov- 
 ernment — of, for and by the people. Enriched 
 by patriotic blood, the island would become 
 more productive than ever. 
 ' No more false promises were to be accepted. 
 From the beginning the Cubans cut all bridges 
 behind them. They adopted their motto — 
 "Independence or Death." 
 
 How steadfast they have been in carrying 
 out their resolve is now history. 
 
 Never has there been such suffering entailed 
 on an entire people. So certain were the 
 Spaniards of the sympathy of all Cubans with 
 
Introduction 7 
 
 the revolution that they took measures to ex- 
 terminate the entire race. 
 
 The half of our suffering and sacrifice is not 
 known, the other half appeared so incredible 
 that years passed before the world was con- 
 vinced. Spain, a recognized nation, was lis- 
 tened to and believed. Cuba, having taken the 
 law in her own hands, was looked upon with 
 suspicion. 
 
 Only in the United States was there sym- 
 pathy for the oppressed and the outraged. 
 
 The patriots in arms shed their blood freely; 
 those in the cities and abroad coined their 
 blood to supply arms and ammunition. But 
 the sacrifice had not been uselessly made; the 
 blood shed had not been in vain ; the lives lost 
 were not fruitless. Once satisfied of the true 
 condition of affairs, the American people were 
 not to be restrained. They fulfilled their mis- 
 sion on this continent, their duty to> civilization 
 and humanity. 
 
 The result is a most holy war. 
 
 One more republic is added to the American 
 nations. 
 
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In Camp, Feb. 20, 1898. 
 
 To General Fitzhugh Lee, 
 
 Consul General U. S. at Havana, 
 
 General : 
 
 The news of the catastrophe of the Maine 
 has greviously affected the Cuban people in arms, 
 and I have the honor to address you for the purpose 
 of expressing to you the pain which the loss of so 
 many lives has caused to all of us. We Cubans do 
 not forget how much sympathy we owe to the 
 people of the Great Nation who share our anxiety 
 and understand the justice of our cause. Permit 
 me then to request you to make expression to them 
 of our fraternal condolences on the sad event which 
 we lament, and from my part receive the personal 
 assurance and sad expression of my highest con- 
 sideration and esteem. I kiss your hand. 
 

 
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Cuban Republic, 
 
 Army of Invasion, 
 
 2nd Commandent 
 
 Nueva Pass, Feb. 21, 1896. 
 
 To Delegate Thomas Estrada Palma, 
 
 New York. 
 
 My Distinguished Friend : 
 
 Senora Felicia Facenda, the wife of Col. Adel 
 Castillo, accompanied by her daughter, being obliged 
 to move to your city, I take great pleasure in re- 
 commending them with all consideration to you. 
 I know that you will be pleased to show them all 
 the politeness which they deserve on account of 
 their relationship to their worthy chief, renowned 
 for his patriotism, courage and excellent conduct, 
 and also that they will receive such treatment from 
 you as people deserve who leave their country to 
 escape the persecutions and dangers due to the 
 policy which Spain through Weyler has just in- 
 augurated here. I speak for them their deep grati- 
 tude and I once more beg you to believe me 
 
 Your most obedient servant and 
 friend who kisses your hand. 
 
s$ -eg. 
 
 U.S.SENATE CHAMBER, 
 
 WASHINGTON. D.C. 
 
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 «P^C A-*-* y^^T <U^* /XA^rX^^C^K^-^^^, 
 
 '%0lsCZ*-u*i erf £2v^ **-******£&. 
 
 
Contents 
 
 Introduction Thomas Estrada Palma 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 America's Ultimatum . . 15 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Reconcentrados . . 20 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 The Black Warrior and the Vir- 
 
 ginius , ,"- -s . 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Recent American Grievances . 37 
 
 CHAPTER v 
 
 Cuba; 1492-1762 . . . 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 " The Ever Faithful Isle " . 50 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Early Insurrections . . . 55 
 
14 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Ten Years' War . . 60 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 The Present Cuban-Spanish War 66 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 The Spanish and Cuban Leaders 74 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Cuban Government . . .81 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 The Geography of Cuba . . 87 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Notes by War Correspondents . 95 
 
I. 
 
 REMEMBER the Maine! 
 Release the reconcentrados! 
 One call is the cry for vengeance; 
 one, the cry for humanity. Together 
 they are the watchwords of the American- 
 Spanish war of 1898. About them the causes 
 of the conflict group themselves. 
 
 On the night of February 15, 1898, the 
 United States battle ship Maine was blown up 
 in Havana Harbor. The Maine was paying 
 what is called in diplomatic language "a friend- 
 ly visit." It lay in waters under the jurisdic- 
 tion of a nation with which the United States 
 was at peace. 
 
 The night was quiet, warm and starlit. 
 
 The seamen of the Maine who were off duty 
 had, many of them, turned into their bunks. 
 Some sat smoking their "goodnight pipes." 
 Most of the officers had gone to their cabins. 
 Some were writing letters. 
 
 At twenty minutes past nine a frightful 
 
1 6 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 shock was felt. The ship was rent. In a few 
 minutes the water was full of floating bodies, 
 the air bright with flame. The Maine was 
 destroyed, and with her two hundred and 
 forty-six American seamen were hurled to 
 swift death. 
 
 "I was just closing a letter to my family 
 when I felt the crash of the explosion." 
 
 This was part of Captain Sigsbee's testi- 
 mony given before the United States Naval 
 Board of Inquiry, consisting of Captain W. T. 
 Sampson, Captain T. E. Chadwick, Lieuten- 
 ant W. P. Potter and Lieutenant Commandef 
 Adolph Marix. 
 
 "It was a bursting, rending and crashing 
 sound or roar of immense volume, largely me- 
 tallic in character. It was succeeded by a 
 metallic sound, probably of falling debris, a 
 trembling and lurching motion of the vessel, 
 then an impression of subsidence, attended by 
 an eclipse of the electric lights and intense 
 darkness within the cabin. I knew imme- 
 diately that the Maine had been blown up and 
 that she was sinking. * * * Nearing the 
 outer entrance I met Private Anthony, the 
 orderly at the cabin door at the time. He 
 ran in to me, as J remember, apologizing in 
 
Cuba at a Glance 17 
 
 some fashion, and reported to me that the 
 ship had been blown up and was sinking." 
 
 Questioned as to the attitude of the Spanish 
 officials in Havana previous to the explosion, 
 Captain Sigsbee said: — 
 
 "My relations with the officials were out- 
 wardly cordial, and I had no ground for as- 
 suming that they were not really cordial. 
 * * * There was one hostile demonstra- 
 tion by people afloat. It was the first Sunday 
 after our arrival, on board a ferryboat densely 
 crowded with people, both civil and military, 
 who were returning to Havana from a bull 
 fight in Regla. The demonstration consisted 
 of yells, whistles, and apparently derisive calls 
 emanating from about thirty or forty people 
 at most. It was not general." 
 
 After he had been questioned concerning 
 the position of the Maine, the regular inspec- 
 tion of its coal bunkers, of its inflammables 
 and paints, its ash buckets, its electric plants, 
 its magazines and shell rooms, the caution 
 and the general discipline; and after Ensign 
 VV. V. N. Powelson, U. S. N., government 
 divers and mining experts had also testified, 
 "the Court found — that the loss of the Maine 
 on the occasion named was not in any respect 
 
1 8 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 due to fault or negligence on the part of any 
 of the officers of said vessel. 
 
 "In the opinion of the Court the Maine was 
 destroyed by the explosion of a submarine 
 mine, which caused the partial explosion of 
 two or more of her forward magazines. 
 
 "The Court has been unable to obtain evi- 
 dence fixing the responsibility for the destruc- 
 tion of the Maine upon any person or persons." 
 
 Sixty-six days after the loss of the battle 
 ship and thirty-two days after the report of the 
 Court, war was begun against Spain. Al- 
 though the Court was unable to fix the re- 
 sponsibility, the nation at large did not hesi- 
 tate to assume that burden. In the ultima- 
 tum that preceded the opening of hostilities 
 there was no mention of the destruction of the 
 two hundred and forty-six American sailors; 
 still the battle cry of the war has been "Re- 
 member the Maine!" 
 
 The ultimatum sent to Spain on April 20, 
 1898, consisted of three parts. The first ex- 
 plained that the United States Congress de- 
 manded the evacuation of Cuba by the Span- 
 ish; the second, that the President had been 
 directed by Congress to use the land and naval 
 forces of the United States to enforce this de- 
 
Cuba at a Glance 19 
 
 mand; and the third, that it was the Presi- 
 dent's duty to request an answer within forty- 
 eight hours. 
 
 Within forty-eight hours the ultimatum had 
 been rejected by the Cortes, and the United 
 States was pledged to free Cuba. 
 

 II. 
 
 THAT was the state of Cuba that 
 the United States Congress should 
 command Spain's evacuation? 
 Since October, 1896, 800,000 
 peaceful Cubans, country people, have been 
 driven from their homes and herded in the ad- 
 jacent towns and cities, their dwellings burnt 
 behind them. 
 
 These were mainly women, children and old 
 men. 
 
 Four hundred thousand of them have died 
 by starvation. 
 
 The others are living skeletons, wandering 
 through the towns begging. They are with- 
 out money, without clothes, without tools and 
 without strength. 
 
 This was the result of General Weyler's or- 
 der of concentration. The Spanish command- 
 er had been annoyed by the aid given the in- 
 surgent Cubans by the non-combatant coun- 
 try people, the "pacificos." The rebels could 
 count on food, clothing, horses and shelter 
 from them. 
 
Cuba at a Glance 21 
 
 By January, 1897, the country side was 
 bare of asylums for the rebels and stripped of 
 friends. The little thatch-roofed cottages of 
 the peasants were in ashes. 
 
 In the towns the reconcentrados, as the 
 concentrated pacificos are called, were allotted 
 fields for cultivation. These fields were never 
 large enough for raising a sufficient product to 
 support life. The reconcentrados were allot- 
 ted no tools and no seed. They had no money 
 to buy them. The gift of the fields thus be- 
 came a mockery. Famine and all the dread 
 diseases that accompany it spread ruin 
 through their ranks. 
 
 In July, 1897, the town of Chaseajaba con- 
 tained two hundred and fifty reconcentrados. 
 In October there were five left, three of them 
 children. 
 
 In one month, December, 1897, 1,300 recon- 
 centrados in Mantanzas — more than one-tenth 
 of the whole number there — died. 
 
 In 1895 there were 60,000 Chinamen in 
 Cuba. Now there are 10,000. 
 
 In November, 1897, after Blanco succeeded 
 Weyler as Captain General of Cuba, he made a 
 feint of modifying the concentration order. 
 The victims, however, were already too weak- 
 ened and diseased to profit by it. 
 
22 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 Cuba was no more "the fairest land that 
 eyes had ever looked upon." 
 
 Consular reports contained statistics of hor- 
 rors. Sightseers told sickening tales of what 
 they witnessed. Newspaper correspondents 
 wrote columns descriptive of atrocities. 
 
 Writing in 1897, Richard Harding Davis 
 describes a state of affairs in Cardenas : — 
 
 "I found the hospital for this colony behind 
 three blankets which had been hung across a 
 corner of the warehouse. A young woman 
 and a man were lying side by side, the girl on a 
 cot and the man on the floor. The others sat 
 within a few feet of them on the other side of 
 the blankets, apparently lost to all sense of 
 their danger, and too dejected and hopeless to 
 even raise their eyes when I gave them money. 
 
 "A fat little doctor was caring for the sick 
 woman, and he pointed through the cracks in 
 the floor at the green slime below us, and held 
 his fingers to his nose and shrugged his shoul- 
 ders. I asked him what ailed his patients, and 
 he said it was yellow fever, and pointed again 
 at the slime, which moved and bubbled in the 
 hot sun. 
 
 "He showed me babies with the skin drawn 
 so tightly over their little bodies that the 
 
Cuba at a Glance 23 
 
 bones showed through as plainly as the rings 
 under a glove. They were covered with sores, 
 and they protested as loudly as they could 
 against the treatment which the world was 
 giving them, clinching their fists and sobbing 
 with pain when the sore places came in contact 
 with their mothers' arms. A planter who had 
 at one time employed a large number of these 
 people, and who was moving about among 
 them, said that five hundred had died in Car- 
 denas since the order to leave the fields had 
 been issued. Another gentleman told me that 
 in the huts at the back of the town there had 
 been twenty-five cases of smallpox in one 
 
 week, of which seventeen had resulted in death. 
 * * # 
 
 "Thousands of human beings are now herd- 
 ed together around the seaport towns of Cuba, 
 who cannot be fed, who have no knowledge of 
 cleanliness or sanitation, who have no doctors 
 to care for them and who cannot care for 
 themselves. 
 
 "Many of them are dying of sickness, and 
 some of starvation, and this is the healthy sea- 
 son. In April and May the rains will come, 
 and the fever will thrive and spread, and chol- 
 era, yellow fever and smallpox will turn Cuba 
 
24 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 into one huge plague spot, and the farmers' 
 sons whom Spain has sent over here to be 
 soldiers, and who are dying by the dozens be- 
 fore they have learned to pull the comb off a 
 bunch of cartridges, are going to die by the 
 hundreds, and women and children who are 
 innocent of any offense will die with them, and 
 there will be a quarantine against Cuba, and 
 no vessel can come into her ports or leave 
 
 them. 
 
 * * # 
 
 "In other wars men have fought with men, 
 and women have suffered indirectly because 
 the men were killed, but in this war it is the 
 women, herded together in the towns like cat- 
 tle, who are going to die, while the men, 
 camped in the fields and the mountains, will 
 live." 
 
 A year later his testimony was practically 
 repeated by an official committee from Con- 
 gress. A commission, composed of Senator 
 Thurston, of Nebraska, Senator Gallinger, of 
 New Hampshire, Senator Money of Missis- 
 sippi, Representative Amos J. Cummings of 
 New York and Representative William Alden 
 Smith of Michigan, visited Cuba and told what 
 they saw. Their verdict was that "Weyler had 
 
Cuba at a Glance 25 
 
 in the order of concentration devised a scheme 
 of human suffering and sorrow that put Dan- 
 te's 'Inferno' into the shade, and converted a 
 contented, prosperous people into a herd of 
 suffering, starving unfortunates." 
 
 Senator Gallinger reported that he was as- 
 sured by Miss Barton, leader of the Red Cross 
 Relief Society, that the famine in Cuba was 
 ten thousand times worse than that which had 
 prevailed in India, Armenia or anywhere else. 
 
 Senator Thurston, in his impassioned ap- 
 peal to the United States Senate on March 24, 
 said: — 
 
 "For myself, I went to Cuba firmly believing 
 the condition of affairs there had been greatly 
 exaggerated by the press, and my own efforts 
 were directed in the first instance to the at- 
 tempted exposure of these supposed exagger- 
 ations. 
 
 "Mr. President, there has undoubtedly been 
 much sensationalism in the journalism of the 
 time, but as to the condition of affairs in Cuba 
 there has been no exaggeration because ex- 
 aggeration has been impossible. * * * The 
 pictures in the American newspapers of the 
 starving reconcentrados are true. They can 
 all be duplicated by the thousands. I never 
 
26 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 saw, and please God I may never again see, so 
 deplorable a sight as the reconcentrados in the 
 suburbs of Matanzas. I can never forget to 
 my dying day the hopeless anguish in their de- 
 spairing eyes. Huddled about their little bark 
 huts, they raised no voice of appeal to us for 
 alms as we went among them. 
 
 "The government of Spain has not and will 
 not appropriate one dollar to> save these peo- 
 ple. They are now being attended and nursed 
 and administered to- by the charity of the 
 United States. Think of the spectacle! We 
 ire feeding these citizens of Spain; we are nurs- 
 ing their sick; we are saving such as can be 
 saved; and yet there are those who still say, 
 Tt is right for us to send food, but we must 
 keep our hands off/ I say that the time has 
 come when muskets ought to go with the 
 food." 
 
III. 
 
 THE condition of the reconcentra- 
 dos as thus outlined might seem a 
 sentimental cause of war. But the 
 interest of the United States in 
 Cuba has for a long time been more than sen- 
 timental because of the vast commercial rela- 
 tions between the two countries. It has been 
 more than merely neighborly, because through 
 her ill government of Cuba Spain has involved 
 us in difficulties which give us just cause for 
 complaint. 
 
 When, after nearly half a century of turmoil 
 and insurrection in Cuba, it became evident to 
 the United States that the tranquillity neces- 
 sary for prosperous trade could not be main- 
 tained under Spanish rule, our purchase of the 
 island was discussed. This was in 1848. 
 
 The proposition met with warm support in 
 the South, which, fearful of the growing in- 
 fluence of the North and West, was anxious 
 to increase the slaveholding area of the 
 United States. President Polk made over- 
 
28 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 tures to Spain for the purchase of Cuba for 
 $100,000,000, which Spain declined. 
 
 From this time Spain's attitude toward the 
 United States in regard to Cuba was distinct- 
 ly unfriendly. The affair of the Black War- 
 rior in 1850 showed the hostile spirit. 
 
 The Black Warrior, a steamer owned in New 
 York, was accustomed, in making monthly 
 trips between New York and Mobile, to touch 
 at Havana to leave and receive mail and pas- 
 sengers, but not to discharge or take on 
 freight. She had been given, in April, 1847, 
 a paper signed by Cuban authorities relieving 
 her of the necessity of exhibiting at each land- 
 ing a manifest of her cargo. In spite of this 
 permit she was arrested in 1850 in Havana 
 Harbor for having an undeclared cargo on 
 board, although she had thirty-six times pre- 
 viously entered under the same conditions 
 with the consent of the revenue officers. The 
 cargo was seized and put on shore and the 
 vessel fined. Captain Bullock, commanding 
 officer, refused to pay the fine and entered a 
 formal protest against the seizure. For this 
 outrage Spain was eventually forced to pay 
 the Black Warrior's owners $300,000. 
 
 This incident is illustrative of the system of 
 
Cuba at a Glance 29 
 
 petty annoyances to which Spain subjected 
 America. It included the search of American 
 vessels by Spanish cruisers on the high seas 
 and the arrest of American citizens in Cuba 
 on trumped-up political charges. 
 
 Our Ministers to England, France, Spain — 
 James Buchanan, J. G. Mason and Pierre 
 Soule — held, in 1854, a conference to propose a 
 plan to our State Department which should 
 end our difficulties. Their scheme was set 
 forth in the Ostend Manifesto. In it they 
 declared: — 
 
 "We have arrived at the conclusion, and 
 are thoroughly convinced, that an immediate 
 and earnest effort ought to be made by the 
 government of the United States to purchase 
 Cuba from Spain at any price for which it can 
 be obtained, not exceeding the sum of $120,- 
 000,000. 
 
 "The Union can never enjoy repose nor 
 possess reliable security as long as Cuba is not 
 embraced within its boundaries. 
 
 "Its immediate acquisition by our govern- 
 ment is of paramount importance, and we can- 
 not doubt that it is a consummation devoutly 
 wished for by its inhabitants. 
 
 "The intercourse which its proximity to our 
 
30 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 coast begets and encourages between them 
 and the citizens of the United States has in 
 the progress of time so united their interests 
 and blended their fortunes that they now look 
 upon each other as if they were one people and 
 
 had but one destiny/' 
 
 * # * 
 
 "Cuba has thus become to us an unceasing 
 danger and a permanent cause of anxiety and 
 
 alarm.' , 
 
 # * * 
 
 "After we have offered Spain a price for 
 Cuba far beyond its present value and this 
 shall have been refused, it will then be time to 
 consider the question, 'Does Cuba in the pos- 
 session of Spain seriously endanger our inter- 
 nal peace and the existence of our cherished 
 Union?' 
 
 "Should this question be answered in the 
 affirmative, then by every law, human and 
 divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from 
 Spain if we possess the power; and this upon 
 the very same principle that would justify an 
 individual in tearing down the burning house 
 of his neighbor if there were no other means 
 of preventing the flames from destroying his 
 own home." 
 
Cuba at a Glance 31 
 
 Any action which the United States might 
 have taken upon this manifesto was indefinite- 
 ly deferred by the increase of her own political 
 agitations, which finally culminated in the 
 Civil War. 
 
 By the time the United States had ended 
 the Civil War and re-established peace the 
 Cubans were engaged in their ten years' 
 struggle against Spain. During this occurred 
 two events, one shocking to humanity and 
 civilization, one a direct outrage upon Amer- 
 ica. The first was "The Affair of the Stu- 
 dents.'' The tomb of a member of the Cuban 
 Volunteers, the powerful militia organization 
 of Spanish loyalists in Havana, had been de- 
 faced. Suspicion pointed to the students of 
 Havana University. Forty-three of these 
 young men were tried for the offense on the 
 complaint of the Volunteers, and were acquit- 
 ted. The Volunteers then induced the Gov- 
 ernor General to order a retrial, at which two- 
 thirds of the jury should be from their own 
 number. This court, of course, condemned 
 the accused. Eight were sentenced to be 
 shot, and on November 27, 1871, 15,000 Vol- 
 unteers assembled to do the shooting. 
 
 Two years later came the Virginius out- 
 
32 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 rage. The Virginius was a steamer chartered 
 as belonging to John F. Patterson, an Amer- 
 ican citizen. She flew the American colors 
 and was cleared as an American merchant- 
 man. She cruised in the Caribbean Sea. In 
 October, 1873, she was seen off the coast of 
 Cuba. She was chased by the Spanish cruiser 
 Tornado along the coast of Santiago. On 
 November 1st she was captured and brought 
 into the port of Santiago de Cuba as a pirate 
 ship. Of her hundred and fifty-five passen- 
 gers forty-five had Anglo-Saxon names, the 
 rest Spanish. But Captain Joseph Fry 
 claimed for all protection as American citi- 
 zens. Not only did he, but also E. G. 
 Schmitt, vice-consul at Santiago, protest 
 against the detention of the vessel. Mr. 
 Schmitt's communications to the Governor 
 of the province were disregarded and he him- 
 self virtually insulted. His messages were left 
 unanswered, because, the Governor said, "Be- 
 ing engaged, as well as every one else, in med- 
 itation of the divine mysteries of All Saints' 
 and the commemoration of All Souls' days, as 
 prescribed by our holy religion, it was impos- 
 sible for me until early this morning to com- 
 ply with your wishes." 
 
Cuba at a GJance 33 
 
 Mr. Schmitt was also refused the use of 
 the marine cable to consult, as he desired, 
 with the United States Consul at Kingston. 
 Fifty-three of the Virginius' party were exe- 
 cuted, among them Captain Fry. After being 
 shot down, their bodies were beheaded, and 
 the heads were displayed on spikes, while their 
 trunks were trampled on by horses. 
 
 The night before his miserable death Cap- 
 tain Fry wrote his wife an interesting descrip- 
 tion of Spanish etiquette. 
 
 "I have been tried to-day, and the President 
 of the Court Martial asked me the favor of 
 embracing me at parting and clasped me to 
 his heart. * * * Each of my judges and 
 the secretary of the court and interpreter have 
 promised me as a special favor to attend my 
 execution. * * * I am told that my death 
 will be painless; in short, I have had a very 
 pleasant and cheerful chat about my funeral, 
 to which I shall go in a few hours from now. 
 * * * It is curious to see how I make 
 friends. The priest who gave me communion 
 this morning put a double scapula about my 
 neck. A young Spanish officer brought me a 
 bright new silk badge with the Blessed Virgin 
 stamped upon it to wear to my execution for 
 
34 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 him and a handsome cross in some fair lady's 
 handiwork. He embraced me affectionately 
 with tears in his eyes. * * *" 
 
 Then, even as in these latter days, an Amer- 
 ican newspaper correspondent, George Sher- 
 man, for trying to sketch the execution scene, 
 was punished with imprisonment. 
 
 How far the slaughter of the Virginius' pas- 
 sengers would have continued but for the ac- 
 tion of the British war ship Niobe it is im- 
 possible to say. The Niobe, under Sir Hamp- 
 ton Lorraine, sailed from Kingston, Jamaica, 
 to Santiago and threatened to bombard the 
 town if the outrages were not immediately 
 stopped. Indignation throughout the United 
 States was intense, and diplomatic relations 
 between it and Spain were almost ruptured. 
 General Sickles, the United States Minister at 
 Madrid, demanded his passports, but. Spain 
 backed down, and the Virginius, with the re- 
 mainder of her passengers, was surrendered to 
 the United States. Indemnities were paid to 
 families of the American subjects who had 
 suffered death at Santiago. 
 
 This was not the only maritime difficulty 
 between Spain and this country during the 
 Ten Years' War. In 1877 the Ellen Rizpah, 
 the Rising Sun, and the Edward Lee, all flying 
 
Cuba at a Glance 35 
 
 the American flag and engaged in their legiti- 
 mate pursuits outside of Cuban waters, were 
 fired upon by a Spanish war ship and detained 
 for days with circumstances of peculiar hard- 
 ship and brutality. Spain was forced to pay 
 an aggregate indemnity of $10,000 to their 
 owners. 
 
 In 1875 both President Grant and Secretary 
 of State Fish made statements concerning our 
 difficulties with Spain. 
 
 President Grant, in his message to Con- 
 gress in 1875, refers to the American inter- 
 ests as follows : — 
 
 "The property of our citizens in Cuba is 
 large and is rendered insecure and depreciated 
 in value and in capacity of production by the 
 continuance of the strife and the unnatural 
 mode of its conduct." 
 
 Secretary Fish, in a letter to Caleb Cushing, 
 then Minister to Spain, wrote: — 
 
 "This struggle (the Ten Years' War) has 
 disturbed our tranquillity and commerce, has 
 called upon us not infrequently to witness bar- 
 barous violations of the rules of civilized war- 
 fare, and compelled us, for the sake of human- 
 ity, to raise our voice by way of protest. 
 
 "The world is witnessing on the part of the 
 insurgents, whom Spain still claims as sub- 
 
36 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 jeets, and for whose acts, as subjects, Spain 
 must be held accountable in the judgment of 
 the world, a warfare, not of the legitimate 
 strife of relative force and strength, but of pil- 
 lage and incendiarism, the burning of estates 
 and sugar mills, the destruction of the means 
 of production and of the wealth of the island. 
 
 "The United States purchases more largely 
 than any other people of the productions of 
 the island of Cuba, and therefore, more than 
 any other for this reason, and still more by 
 reason of its immediate neighborhood, is in- 
 terested in the arrest of a system of wanton 
 destruction which disgraces the age and af- 
 fects every commercial people on the face of 
 the globe. 
 
 "The United States has exerted itself to the 
 utmost, for seven years, to repress unlawful 
 acts on the part of self exiled subjects of Spain, 
 relying on the promise of Spain to pacify the 
 island. Seven years of strain on the powers 
 of this government to fulfil all that the most 
 exacting demands that one government can 
 make, under any doctrine or claim of interna- 
 tional obligation, upon another, have not wit- 
 nessed the much hoped for pacification. The 
 United States feels itself entitled to be relieved 
 of this strain." 
 
IV. 
 
 THE "unlawful acts" on the part of 
 Spain's subjects to which the letter 
 of Secretary Fish referred meant, 
 of course, the conspiracies of Cu- 
 bans hatched in the United States, the raising 
 of forces and the collection of materials for in- 
 surrection here. Briefly, the United States 
 had to perform detective and policeman duty 
 for Spain to prevent the setting out of filibus- 
 tering expeditions to Cuba. During the pres- 
 ent war of Cuba against Spain the duty has 
 been as irksome as it was in Grant's adminis- 
 tration, and it has sometimes led to serious in- 
 ternational complications. 
 
 In March, 1895, the' Allianca, bound from 
 Colon to New York, following the customary 
 track for vessels near the Cuban shore, but 
 outside the three-mile limit, was fired upon 
 by a Spanish gunboat. The United States 
 protest was this time immediately heeded and 
 the act disavowed by Spain. 
 
 In April, 1896, the schooner Competitor, 
 
38 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 with twenty-five or thirty men and a cargo of 
 arms and ammunition for the rebels, sailed 
 from Key West for Havana. On the coast of 
 Cuba, about sixty miles west of that part, the 
 Spanish launch Mensejara captured the 
 schooner. Some of the filibusters had already 
 landed. Others tried to swim ashore. Two of 
 these were killed. Alfred Laborde, an Ameri- 
 can, was captured on a reef which he had 
 gained. Four men — two Cubans, Bedia and 
 Maza; an Englishman, James Kildea, and an 
 American, a Jacksonville newspaper corre- 
 spondent, Owen Milton — were captured on 
 the ship. They were court-martialed and sen- 
 tenced to be shot. 
 
 A storm of protest arose. England and the 
 United States demanded civil trials for their 
 subjects. Captain-General Weyler raged at 
 the interference with his authority, but Prime 
 Minister Canovas, in Madrid, granted the stay 
 of execution required by England and Amer- 
 ica. Eventually the men were all released. 
 That occurred on January 23, 1897, "the 
 King's Saint Day," when all American polit- 
 ical prisoners in Cuba were liberated under 
 promise to give no further aid to the insur- 
 gents. 
 
Cuba at a Glance 39 
 
 The Competitor prisoners formed but a 
 small part of the American colony in Cuba's 
 jails at various times during the troubled 
 years since the outbreak of the war, in 1894. 
 Jules Sanguilly, a native Cuban but a natural- 
 ized American since 1878, was arrested in Feb- 
 ruary, 1895, charged with rebellion. He was 
 found guilty and sentenced to life imprison- 
 ment. In February, 1897, he was pardoned 
 on the condition that he should leave the 
 island. 
 
 Gaspar Betancourt, a naturalized American, 
 was charged in January, 1897, with aiding the 
 rebels, imprisoned 288 hours in solitary con- 
 finement, contrary to treaty, and was finally 
 released in February, 1897. 
 
 Frank Agramonte, of New York, was ar- 
 rested in May, 1895, charged with conspiracy 
 against Spain. Secure in innocence and confi- 
 dent of acquittal, he gave himself up. For two 
 years he was imprisoned at Santiago de Cuba 
 without trial. He did not obtain his freedom 
 until October, 1897. 
 
 A companion of Agramonte — Thomas 
 Sainz — had suffered in the same way on the 
 same charge. 
 
 The Rev. Albert Diaz and his brother were 
 
40 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 arrested on April 16, 1896, tried and deported 
 to the United States on April 22. 
 
 American citizens having possessions or bus- 
 iness in Cuba suffered also under the Weyler 
 regime. 
 
 In September, 1896, Peter E. Rivery, an 
 American planter having a coffee estate near 
 St. Luis, in Pinar del Rio province, had his 
 property partly destroyed and was himself 
 threatened with death by Spanish troops. 
 
 William and Louis A. Glean, owners of a 
 sugar estate in Sagua la Grande, were arrested 
 in September, 1896, and thrown into prison 
 without being allowed to communicate with 
 the American Consul, with lawyers or with 
 witnesses. They were charged with keeping 
 arms for the insurgents. Their servants were 
 tortured to induce them to testify against their 
 employers — a device which failed. While they 
 were in prison their estate was burned by 
 Spanish troops, so that at the time of their 
 release they were practically penniless. 
 
 Henry W. McDonnell, of Alabama, a plant- 
 er owning a plantation also near Havana, visit- 
 ed his property in Cuba in February, 1897. 
 Finding that his possessions had suffered con- 
 siderably at the hands of the Spanish soldiers, 
 
Cuba at a Glance 41 
 
 he criticized Spanish methods with great 
 frankness. He was immediately hauled be- 
 fore the authorities, his passports seized by 
 General Weyler and he himself arrested. He 
 was finally released at the demand of Consul 
 General Lee. 
 
 Most tragic of all was the death of Dr. Ri- 
 cardo Ruiz, an American dentist. He was ar- 
 rested early in February, 1897, on the charge 
 of being a rebel sympathizer. He was thrown 
 into a foul cell in a suburban Havana jail and 
 was not permitted intercourse with counsel or 
 with his family for thirteen days. The requests 
 of Consul General Lee for information con- 
 cerning the charges on which Ruiz was held 
 were ignored or evasively answered. On the 
 fourteenth day after his imprisonment he was 
 found dead. It was obvious that he had been 
 tortured to obtain a confession after the usual 
 Spanish method and that his death was the re- 
 sult of the treatment. 
 
 These and similar outrages against Amer- 
 ican citizens in Cuba led to the filing in April, 
 1898, of claims against Spain for $16,000,000 
 damages for personal injury, imprisonment, 
 loss of stock, burning of sugar plantations, &c. 
 
 Within the last two years, for the high 
 
42 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 crime of giving authentic information to the 
 American press, the following American 
 newspaper correspondents were arrested, im- 
 prisoned or deported: 
 
 William Mannix, Sylvester Scovel, Charles 
 Michelson, Lorenzo Betancourt, Elbert Rap- 
 pelje, James Creelman, Frederick W. Law- 
 rence, William W. Gay, Thomas R. Dawley, 
 C. B. Pendleton, Theodore Pous and George 
 Bronson. 
 
 Charles Govin, a correspondent for a Flor- 
 ida paper, was brutally murdered by the Span- 
 ish troops under Colonel Ochoa, into whose 
 hands he fell after they had had an engage- 
 ment with the Cubans. His passports and his 
 correspondent's certificate were examined, 
 thrown aside, and at a wave of Ochoa's hand 
 Govin was bound and riddled with bullets. 
 
V. 
 
 JUAN A, Fernandina, Santiago, Ave 
 Maria — thus was the Island of Cuba 
 successively christened by the Span- 
 iards. 
 "Cuba" itself is from Cubanan. It means 
 what it has always been to the Spanish — the 
 place of gold. 
 
 1492, the discovery of America, is also the 
 date of the discovery of Cuba. For four cen- 
 turies the Island of Cuba has been governed 
 by the Cortes of Madrid — 7,000 miles away. 
 Not until 151 1, however, did the Spanish 
 think it worth while to colonize. They did 
 not establish a settlement there until they 
 thought they had exhausted the wealth of 
 the neighboring island of Hayti. Then, be- 
 lieving there was no more gold in Hayti's 
 mines, they sent a band of 300 men under 
 Diego Velasquez to make a settlement in 
 Cuba. 
 
 Diego Velasquez and his men found the 
 natives peaceable, happy and contented and 
 
44 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 under the government of nine independent 
 chiefs. As Columbus wrote to Ferdinand and 
 Isabella after his first experience with the 
 West Indians: "The people are so affection- 
 ate, so tractable and so peaceable that I swear 
 to Your Highnesses that there is not a better 
 race of men nor a better country in the 
 world. They love their neighbor as them- 
 selves; their conversation is the sweetest and 
 mildest in the world, cheerful and always ac- 
 companied by a smile. And, although it is 
 true that they go naked, yet Your Highness- 
 es may be assured they have many commenda- 
 ble customs." 
 
 The reputation gained by the Spaniards in 
 151 1 has never been forfeited. It was then 
 that Hatuey, a native chieftain, who had op- 
 posed the Dons, was tied to a stake with fag- 
 ots piled about him. While the flames rose 
 a Franciscan monk held a crucifix before him 
 and told him the beauties of the Christian 
 faith. 
 
 "Be sorry for your sins," he cried, "and gain 
 a place in heaven." 
 
 "Where is heaven?" asked Hatuey, "and 
 are there Spaniards there?" 
 
 The priest answered that there were many. 
 
Cuba at a Glance 45 
 
 "Then," cried Hatuey, "pray let me go some- 
 where else." 
 
 The subjugation of the natives by Velas- 
 quez was quick. Without the loss of a man 
 he took possession of the island — a posses- 
 sion that has endured almost uninterruptedly 
 for nearly four centuries. 
 
 The natives were allotted to the settlers in 
 gangs of about three hundred to each Span- 
 iard. They were employed in the cultivation of 
 the soil, but it was soon found that they were 
 not strong enough for such field work as the 
 colonists would have imposed upon them. 
 
 Negro slaves from Spain, where for a con- 
 siderable time slavery had existed, were there- 
 fore imported. 
 
 The first settlement established by the 
 Spaniards was Santiago, on the southeast 
 coast, for a long time Cuba's capital. The 
 next was Trinidad, on the eastern shore. San 
 Cristobal de la Rabana was the third, founded 
 in 151 5. It is now called Batabano and is di- 
 rectly opposite Havana on the eastern coast. 
 
 Four years later the name of Havana was 
 given to the present capital. 
 
 One of the first Governors sent by Spain to 
 this colony was Hernando de Soto, famed in 
 
46 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 American history as the discoverer of the M is- 
 sissippi. 
 
 In 1538 Havana had been set on fire by a 
 French privateer. To guard against the rep- 
 etition of such a disaster, de Soto erected a 
 fortress. It was called the Castillo de la 
 Fuerza. 
 
 In 1553 Havana, which had gained consid- 
 erably in importance by the transfer of the 
 Governor's residence from Santiago, was at- 
 tacked and partially destroyed by the French. 
 
 A year later it was plundered by pirates. 
 
 In 1585, being again seriously menaced by 
 the English, under Drake, two more fort- 
 resses were built. They were named the Bat- 
 eria de la Punta and the Castillo del Morro. 
 These still guard the entrance to Havana. 
 
 During the reign of Philip III. the sugar 
 and tobacco industries grew in importance in 
 Cuba. This was due to the expulsion of the 
 Moors from Spain and the consequent cessa- 
 tion of their cultivation in Spain. 
 
 During all this period Spain imposed heavy 
 trade restriction upon Cuba. The island could 
 sell its products to no other country. It could 
 buy what it needed from no other country. 
 Seville was the only Spanish port with which 
 
Cuba at a Glance 47 
 
 the island was allowed to trade. The natural 
 result was extensive smuggling carried on be- 
 tween the colonists and foreign adventurers. 
 
 The men with whom Cuba carried on this 
 illegal commerce had their headquarters in 
 the bays of Hayti, which had been almost de- 
 serted by that time for the more attractive 
 country of Cuba. The Haytians who were 
 left lived mainly on the flesh of cattle, which 
 they smoked by a peculiar process called 
 bucanning. The smugglers, copying this way 
 of preserving meat for use on shipboard, came 
 to be known as "buccaneers." 
 
 For over 150 years these buccaneers har- 
 rassed the Spanish. They were encouraged by 
 all other nations antagonistic to the Spanish. 
 They were even commissioned by other coun- 
 tries as privateers. They sailed the Spanish 
 main — the waters surrounding the West In- 
 dies — stopping Spanish ships and interfering 
 with Spanish commerce. When in 1655 Eng- 
 land gained Jamaica they grew even more dar- 
 ing and more powerful. Jamaica became the 
 headquarters, whence they issued not only to 
 plunder vessels upon the high seas, but even 
 to ravage the cities and the mainland of Cuba. 
 In 1 67 1 one of them — Henry Morgan — was 
 knighted by Great Britain for his exploits. 
 
48 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 As a protection in the midst of the depreda- 
 tions of this gentry Havana was fortified by 
 walls. The magnificent harbor could only be 
 entered by stealth or by force. In 1697 the 
 European Powers set the seal of general con- 
 demnation upon the buccaneers. The Cu- 
 ban settlements revived materially and grew 
 in importance. 
 
 In 171 3 the opening of the new era in Spain 
 by the ending of the Hapsburg rule and the 
 establishment of the Bourbons was felt in Cu- 
 ba. The agricultural wealth had begun to 
 make a showing. A new policy was adopted. 
 The tobacco trade was made a royal monop- 
 oly. Out of this measure a serious clashing 
 between the colonists and the mother coun- 
 try ensued. The monoply was violently op- 
 posed. Constant friction and bloody encoun- 
 ters between the Cuban and the Spanish mili- 
 tia were engendered. Systematic smuggling, 
 mainly by British traders in Jamaica, again 
 resulted. Another Anglo-Spanish war fol- 
 lowed and ended in a general European one. 
 
 In the thirteen years of peace that followed 
 the cessation of hostilities in 1748 smuggling 
 in Cuba grew beyond control and Spain was 
 forced to give up the tobacco monopoly. 
 
Cuba at a Glance 49 
 
 British power grew in America. France 
 and Spain were anxiously jealous of England, 
 and Cuba felt that at any moment she might 
 become a scene of depredation in the general 
 conflict of European nations. 
 
VI. 
 
 IN 1762 Cuba's expectations were 
 realized. Havana was besieged by 
 the English. 
 All Europe, practically, was in- 
 volved in the struggle known as the Seven 
 Years' War. In January of 1762 hostilities 
 were declared against Spain. In the summer 
 Lord Albermarle was sent against Havana 
 with a fleet of 200 ships and a force of 14,041 
 men. 
 
 In this force were some whose names appear 
 later in the pages of American history. The 
 British Colonies in America contributed their 
 share of soldiers for the siege. Lawrence 
 Washington, a brother of George, served in 
 the expedition. New Jersey, New York and 
 Connecticut sent 2,300 men. General Lyman 
 and Israel Putnam were among them, the lat- 
 ter gaining military training which afterward 
 proved valuable to him when he took up arms 
 against the British. The American loss was 
 
Cuba at a Glance 51 
 
 heavy. Few of the Colonial troops, either offi- 
 cers or men, ever returned. Most of those 
 whom the Spanish guns spared were killed by 
 sickness. 
 
 The defence was stubbornly conducted. 
 Spain had a force of 27,610 men in the city. 
 Among them was a body which has been a 
 feature of military life in Cuba ever since that 
 time — the Cuban Volunteers. This organiza- 
 tion has always been allied with the Spanish 
 party in Cuba. At the time of the British 
 siege there was, of course, no other party. The 
 brilliant work of the Volunteers during this 
 obstinate ten months' struggle gave them 
 their first glory. 
 
 In spite of the larger force of the Spanish, 
 the English were successful. The captors 
 seized $3,680,925, which was divided among 
 them. 
 
 During the English occupation of Cuba the 
 island enjoyed the first progressive and liberal 
 rule it had known. Its ports were opened to 
 free commerce. 
 
 The sanitary condition of Havana had been 
 up to that time a disgrace to even the primi- 
 tive sanitary science of the age. Under the 
 English rule improvements were begun which, 
 
52 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 if they had been continued, might have left 
 the region free in great part from the yellow 
 fever plague which menaces the island each 
 year, and which is due largely to municipal 
 uncleanliness. 
 
 Roads were opened up all over the island. 
 An era of modern prosperity seemed almost 
 begun, when Spain again became owner of 
 Cuba, the Pearl of the Antilles. 
 
 This happened in February, 1763. England 
 gave Cuba back to Spain in return for Florida. 
 
 But it was impossible for Spanish rule to 
 undo the good work of the English completely 
 and at once. One of the first Governors under 
 the new Spanish regime happened — and this 
 was an unusual occurrence^to have the inter- 
 ests of the Cubans at heart as much as those of 
 Spain. He was Luis de Las Casas. He was 
 made Governor in 1 790. He encouraged trade 
 with the young Republic just established in 
 America. It was about this time that sugar 
 became an important article of trade, though 
 not even then universally used. It was sold at 
 forty-three cents a pound, a price which pro- 
 hibited its use in large quantities. But it was 
 becoming a large factor in commercial rela- 
 tions, and the generous policy of Las Casas 
 
Cuba at a Glance 53 
 
 toward the United States helped largely in de- 
 veloping the industry in Cuba. 
 
 Another act that endeared Las Casas to 
 Americans was the removal of the body of Co- 
 lumbus from Hayti, where it had been en- 
 tombed, and the placing of it in Havana Ca- 
 thedral. 
 
 Las Casas was succeeded in 1796 by the 
 Count of Santa Clara. He also proved to be a 
 man of just and liberal ideas. Most of the for- 
 tifications which guard the island now were 
 erected by him. The Bateria de Santa Clara, 
 outside Havana, was built by him and named 
 in his honor. 
 
 Perhaps it was a result of the beneficent pol- 
 icies of these two Goverors that Cuba became 
 confirmed in her allegiance to Spain. When 
 Napoleon in 1808 deposed the Bourbon King, 
 Ferdinand VII., and placed his own brother, 
 Joseph, on the Spanish throne, every member 
 of the Provincial Council of Cuba declared un- 
 waveringly loyalty to the old dynasty. For 
 this it was called "The Ever Faithful Isle," a 
 title which has proved its only reward for its 
 allegiance, although a more substantial one 
 was promised at the time by the Provisional 
 Government at Seville. This body, acting for 
 
54 
 
 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 the deposed Bourbons, promised that all Span- 
 ish subjects everywhere should have equal 
 rights. 
 
 How the promise to "The Ever Faithful 
 Isle" was kept is an interesting lesson in Span- 
 ish diplomacy. 
 
VII 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IN 1813 Bonaparte Joseph was de- 
 posed and Ferdinand VII. was re- 
 stored to Spain. He began his new 
 rule by ignoring the constitution, 
 dissolving the Cortes and making himself an 
 absolute monarch. The American colonies 
 felt his despotic yoke again. 
 
 In 1809 and 1810 Buenos Ayres, Venezuela 
 and Peru started rebellions against Spanish 
 authority, which ended after several years in 
 their complete independence. The Spanish 
 loyalists from these countries flocked to Cuba 
 and expected to be retainers of the Crown at 
 Cuba's expense. Then Spain attempted to 
 make Cuba a military station from which she 
 could direct operations against the new repub- 
 lics, which she wished to reconquer. The 
 troops sent for this purpose to Cuba disliked 
 their mission, the colonists were ill-satisfied 
 with the government, and the general discon- 
 tent gave birth to numerous secret political so- 
 
56 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 cieties. The insurrections planned by these 
 associations soon aroused the interest of the 
 United States in Cuban affairs. 
 
 The first open revolt was in 1820. Its lead- 
 ers proclaimed as the governing law of Cuba 
 the liberal constitution granted by the Provi- 
 sional Government of Seville when Ferdinand 
 was deposed. It took two years of discord and 
 rebellion to force the King to yield. 
 
 The next revolution planned was that of the 
 Soles de Bolivar, in 1823. It purposed to es- 
 tablish a Cuban republic. The rising was to 
 take place simultaneously in several cities on 
 the island, but the purposes of the society be- 
 came known to the government, and on the 
 very day when independence was to be de- 
 clared the leaders were imprisoned. 
 
 In 1825 the King, possibly to discourage 
 revolution, defined the powers of the Captain 
 Generals of Cuba in this way: he gave to 
 them "the fullest authority toi send away from 
 the island any persons in office, whatever their 
 occupation, rank, class or condition, whose 
 continuance therein they might deem injuri- 
 ous, or whose conduct, public or private, 
 might alarm them, replacing them with per- 
 sons faithful to His Majesty." 
 
Cuba at a Glance 57 
 
 As a result of this the "Black Eagle Society" 
 formed a second invading expedition, with 
 headquarters in Mexico, and recruiting agen- 
 cies in the United States. Again the ringlead- 
 ers were caught by the Spanish authorities, as 
 their predecessors of the Soles de Bolivar had 
 been. 
 
 In 1844 occurred an uprising so barbarously 
 quelled by Spain as to show that she had not 
 left behind her the days of the Inquisition. The 
 slaves on the sugar plantations about Matan- 
 zas were suspected of being ready to revolt. 
 Absolute proof being lacking, they were tor- 
 tured for evidence. One thousand three hun- 
 dred and forty-six persons were tried by Inqui- 
 sition methods and convicted. Seventy-eight 
 were shot ; punishment of various degrees was 
 inflicted upon the others. 
 
 The next conspiracy was headed by Narciso 
 Lopez, a native Venezuelan, who had served in 
 the Spanish army. In 1848 he started a revo- 
 lutionary movement which was unsuccessful. 
 He escaped to New York, bringing many of his 
 allies with him. There he succeeded in aug- 
 menting the sympathy already aroused and in 
 establishing a movement for practical aid. In 
 1849 he attempted to return to Cuba with a 
 
58 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 small party, but was intercepted by the United 
 States authority. A year later, having or- 
 ganized his forces outside of United States ju- 
 risdiction, he succeeded in reaching Cuba with 
 600 men. In spite of his persistency he was 
 compelled to re-embark and was chased by a 
 Spanish war ship to Key West, where his party 
 disbanded. 
 
 Still undaunted by failure, the next year 
 found Lopez starting from New Orleans for 
 Cuba with a regiment of 450 men. Second in 
 command to himself was Colonel Crittenden, 
 of Kentucky, a West Point man, who had won 
 his title in the Mexican War. Landing in 
 Cuba, the forces were divided, 130 men under 
 Crittenden remaining on the shore to guard 
 the supplies, while Lopez with the rest pushed 
 on into the interior. Both parties were sur- 
 rounded by the Spanish. Crittenden's force, 
 when it had been reduced to fifty men, was cap- 
 tured and destroyed. Lopez and his detach- 
 ment were all captured, and Lopez himself 
 shot. 
 
 This attempt aroused the greatest sympathy 
 in this country, both on account of Lopez, who 
 had become well known, and because of the 
 death of Crittenden. 
 
Cuba at a Glance 59 
 
 An expedition led by General Quitman, of 
 Mississippi, two years later, to assist Cuban 
 patriots, seemed to have a chance of success 
 because of its adequate supply of men and 
 arms, but the United States interfered. The 
 American expedition was abandoned and the 
 native patriots shot. 
 
 The details of these revolts were not without 
 importance to the United States. They inter- 
 fered with our commercial interests in Cuba, 
 which had grown large. They forced us to> be 
 on guard against Cuban conspirators and 
 against filibustering expeditions. But the 
 most important result of Spain's determina- 
 tion to use Cuba as a ground for the recon- 
 quering of her former American possessions 
 was the formulation of the Monroe Doctrine. 
 In 1823 France and Spain formed what they 
 were pleased to term a Holy Alliance, with the 
 object of resubjugating the Spanish posses- 
 sions. President Monroe said that "any at- 
 tempt by a European power to gain dominion 
 in America would be regarded by the United 
 States as an unfriendly act." England, by her 
 recognition of the Spanish-American repub- 
 lics, reinforced the United States in her atti- 
 tude, and thus the Monroe Doctrine became 
 established as a feature of international law. 
 
VIII. 
 
 SPAIN, in 1868, was in the throes of an 
 internal struggle, in the course of 
 which Queen Isabella was forced to 
 flee. Cuba did not then, as she 
 had done sixty years before, when Napo- 
 leon deposed the Bourbons, proclaim her loy- 
 alty to her sovereigns. She had learned how 
 Spain rewarded loyalty, and she took advan- 
 tage of the trouble in the Peninsula to begin a 
 revolution on the island as the only means by 
 which she could obtain redress for her griev- 
 ances. 
 
 Her grievances were many. In the Edin- 
 burgh Review of 1873 they were stated as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 "Spain governs the island of Cuba with an 
 iron and blood-stained hand. The former 
 holds the latter deprived of political, civil and 
 religious liberties. Hence the unfortunate Cu- 
 bans being illegally prosecuted and sent into 
 exile, or executed by military commissions in 
 times of peace; hence their being kept from 
 
Cuba at a Glance 61 
 
 public meetings, and forbidden to speak or 
 write on affairs of State; hence their remon- 
 strances against the evils that afflict them be- 
 ing looked upon as the proceedings of rebels, 
 from the fact that they are obliged to keep si- 
 lence and obey; hence the never-ending plague 
 of hungry officials from Spain to devour the 
 product of their industry and labor; hence 
 their exclusion from the art of government; 
 hence, the restrictions to which public in- 
 struction with them is subjected in order to 
 keep them so ignorant as not to be able to 
 know and enforce their rights in any shape 
 or form whatever; hence the navy and the 
 standing army, which are kept in their coun- 
 try at an enormous expenditure from their 
 own wealth to make them bend their knees 
 and submit their necks to the iron yoke that 
 disgraces them; hence the grinding taxation 
 under which they labor and which would 
 make them all perish in misery but for the 
 marvellous fertility of their soil." 
 
 The annual revenue demanded by Spain 
 from Cuba up to the time of the beginning of 
 the war was about $26,000,000. This rev- 
 enue, of course, was not used to Cuba's ad- 
 vantage. The Captain General — always a 
 
62 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 Spaniard — received a salary of $50,000 a year, 
 with perquisites; the provincial governors — 
 always Spaniards — $12,000 each, with perquis- 
 ites; the two archbishops — always Spaniards 
 — $18,000, with perquisites. As will be seen, 
 there was no chance for native Cubans. Even 
 the lowest offices were given by Spanish poli- 
 ticians to their friends. Naturally great bit- 
 terness between the Insulars, or native Cu- 
 bans, and the Peninsulars, or Spaniards in 
 Cuba, was aroused. 
 
 Spain still had almost a monopoly of trade 
 to Cuba and forced the Cubans to pay the 
 highest taxes on all the necessities of life. 
 Wheaten bread, under the heavy duty im- 
 posed on flour, ceased to be an article of com- 
 mon diet on the island. 
 
 An unheard of rate was charged on postage, 
 so that a native Cuban receiving a prepaid let- 
 ter at his own door had to pay 37 1-2 cents 
 additional postage. 
 
 While the Spaniards paid $3.23 per capita 
 of interest on their national debt, the Cubans 
 paid $6.39, although they had some of its 
 benefits. 
 
 In 1868, when it was proposed still further 
 to tax them, they rose in arms. On October 
 
Cuba at a Glance 63 
 
 10th Carlos M. de Cespedes, a lawyer of Bay- 
 amo, with 128 poorly equipped men, issued a 
 declaration of independence on the plantation 
 of Yara, and within a few weeks he was at 
 the head of 10,000 men, badly armed but de- 
 termined. By April, 1869, a constitution for 
 a republican form of government was drawn 
 up. It provided for a president, vice presi- 
 dent, cabinet and a legislature. It abolished 
 slavery, and under it Cespedes was elected 
 president, Francisco Aguilero vice president, 
 and a legislature convened. 
 
 The war had been in progress six months, 
 the advantages being with the insurgents un- 
 der General Quesada. Every Cuban who did 
 fall into the hands of the Spaniards was shot 
 on the spot. The Spanish General, the Count 
 of Valmaseda, issued a proclamation outlining 
 his plan of warfare. He said: — 
 
 "The reinforcements of troops that I have 
 been waiting for have arrived. With them 
 I shall give protection to the good and punish 
 promptly all those that still remain in rebel- 
 lion against the government of the metropo- 
 lis. 
 
 "1st. — Every man, from the age of fifteen 
 years upward, found away from his habitation, 
 
64 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 who does not prove a justified motive there- 
 for, will be shot. 
 
 "2d. — Every habitation unoccupied will be 
 burned by the troops. 
 
 "3d. — Every habitation from which does 
 not float a white flag as a signal that its occu- 
 pants desire peace will be reduced to ashes. 
 
 "Women that are not living at their own 
 homes or at the houses of their relatives will 
 collect in the town of Jiguane or Bayamo, 
 where maintenance will be provided. Those^ 
 who do not present themselves will be con- 
 ducted forcibly.'' 
 
 This proclamation raised a gale of protest 
 among civilized nations, but nevertheless 
 these were the Spanish tactics throughout the 
 war. 
 
 Until 1 87 1 the insurgents kept the field 
 with a force of about fifty thousand men. 
 They were constantly victorious in engage- 
 ments, but the Spanish resources were greater, 
 and finally the insurgents were driven into a 
 sort of guerilla-like warfare. There were rov- 
 ing bands of insurgents that harassed and 
 damaged, but did not actually meet the Span- 
 ish troops. The Cuban climate proved an act- 
 ive ally of the Cubans in disposing of the en- 
 
Cuba at a Glance 65 
 
 emy. The war became a desultory sort of 
 struggle. By 1876 145,000 soldiers and 
 Spain's best commanders had been sent to 
 Cuba and had not yet subdued the rebels, who 
 were invincible in the eastern part of the isl- 
 and, although they could take no cities. Cu- 
 ban crops had been ruined and Cuban trade 
 decreased. Spain had wasted money and men, 
 losing about eighty thousand of her land 
 forces. Taxes had been trebled. By 1878 
 both sides were ready for peace, which was 
 the result of promised compromise and con- 
 cessions rather than of victory on either side. 
 
 General Martinez de Campos, who was the 
 Spanish commander at that time, made over- 
 tures to the Cubans under Maximo Gomez. 
 The result was the treaty of El Zanjon, Feb- 
 ruary 10, 1878. This treaty promised Cuba 
 representation in the Spanish Cortes and 
 granted a general pardon to all who had taken 
 any part, directly or indirectly, in the revolu- 
 tionary movement. 
 
IX 
 
 THE most important element in the 
 treaty of El Zanjon promised Cuba 
 representation in the Cortes at 
 Madrid. The promise was kept 
 in the letter and utterly broken in the spirit. 
 The Peninsulars soon obtained absolute con- 
 trol of the polls, and invariably elected a ma- 
 jority of the deputies. Such representatives 
 naturally did not have the interests of Cuba at 
 heart, and no legislation to its advantage was 
 undertaken. 
 
 The cities, hopelessly in debt, were unable 
 to provide sewerage, garbage service or street 
 cleaning. Schools were closed. There was, and 
 is, but one asylum for the insane in Cuba, that 
 in Havana. Elsewhere, the insane are con- 
 fined in prison cells. Church and state holi- 
 days take up one-third of the time that might 
 be devoted to labor to meet public expenses. 
 
 Not only did Cuba, out of the earnings of 
 the other two-thirds of the year, have to pay 
 the high salaries of her horde of Spanish rulers, 
 
Cuba at a Glance 67 
 
 but she suffered enormously from the dishon- 
 esty of those officials. The custom house 
 frauds alone, between 1878 and 1895, amount- 
 ed to $100,000,000. But no relief was to be 
 obtained under the Spanish interpretation of 
 the Zanjon treaty. Patience ceased to seem a 
 virtue, and in 1894 a new insurrection was 
 mapped out by Jose Marti. 
 
 He organized his first expedition in New 
 York, and set sail for Cuba with three vessels, 
 the Lagonda, the Amadis and the Baracoa, 
 containing men and war materials. The expe- 
 dition was stopped by United States' authori- 
 ties. Later, Marti joined Gomez, Crombet, 
 Guerra and the Maceo brothers — all insur- 
 gents in the Ten Years' War — in Santo Dom- 
 ingo, Gomez's home. They did not reach Cuba 
 Cuba until May, 1895, but, in the preceding 
 February, the insurgents had begun their re- 
 bellion, and they gained ground even before 
 the arrival of their commanders. 
 
 The war has been conducted largely on the 
 same principles as was the Ten Years' War. 
 The insurgents seldom risk an open battle; 
 the Spaniards gain but little ground in oppos- 
 ing the guerilla methods of the Cubans. On 
 May 19th Marti was killed in a skirmish. Go- 
 
68 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 mez took command in his place, and thus the 
 war practically began with the leaders on each 
 side the same men who had closed the last war, 
 General Martinez Campos and Maximo 
 Gomez. Gomez has remained at the head of 
 his forces. Campos was replaced in February, 
 1896, by General Valeriano Weyler, who was, 
 in turn, recalled in October, 1897, for Don 
 Ramon Blanco. During the interval between 
 the departure of Campos and the arrival of 
 Weyler, General Marin was in charge. 
 
 Under Commander-in-Chief Gomez the 
 Cubans were in six divisions, operating in the 
 six provinces: — In Pinar del Rio Antonio 
 Maceo commanded; in Havana, General 
 Aguerre; in Matanzas, Lacret; in Las Villas, 
 Carillo; in Camaguey, Suarez; in Oriento, 
 Jose Maceo. Jose Maceo died, and Antonio 
 Maceo was afterward killed. Saurez was cash- 
 iered for cowardice, and Garcia later replaced 
 him in the East. 
 
 The most important battle of the Campos 
 campaign was that of Bayamo. In July, 1895, 
 Campos met the rebels. The Spaniards weie 
 severely tried, and Campos' life was saved only 
 by the sacrifice of that of General Santocildes. 
 Antonio Maceo treated the wounded whom 
 
Cuba at a Glance 69 
 
 the Spanish left on the field, at the time of 
 their retreat, with the utmost humanity. He 
 wrote to Campos: — 
 
 "To His Excellency the General Martinez 
 Campos : — 
 
 "Dear Sir — Anxious to give careful and ef- 
 ficient attendance to the wounded Spanish 
 soldiers that your troops left behind on the 
 battle field, I have ordered that they be lodged 
 in the houses of the Cuban families that live 
 nearest to the battle grounds until you send 
 for them. 
 
 "With my assurance that the forces you 
 may send to escort them back will not meet 
 any hostile demonstrations from my soldiers, 
 I have the honor to be, sir, 
 
 "Yours respectfully, 
 
 "ANTONIO MACEO." 
 
 After this Campos retreated, but the Cu- 
 bans continued their invasion toward the in- 
 terior. In July, 1895, Gomez issued a procla- 
 mation from Camaguey, prohibiting the car- 
 rying of articles of commerce into cities of 
 Spanish occupation, and, under threat of 
 direst penalty, the cultivation, cutting or 
 grinding of sugar cane. The Spaniards at first 
 
jo Cuba at a Glance 
 
 regarded this as a humorous document. But 
 they soon had cause to change their views. 
 
 When Campos failed to confine the insur- 
 gents to the East, he arranged a snare for 
 them near Mai Tiempo. There the Spanish 
 were caught in their own trap. The Cubans 
 were victorious. 
 
 Again Campos tried to hem them in. In 
 December, 1895, he lay in wait for Maceo's in- 
 vading forces between Coliseo and Lumidero. 
 The Cubans seemed outgeneraled, when it oc- 
 curred to Maceo to order the firing of the cane 
 fields on either side of the Spaniards. The re- 
 sult of this was that Campos, finding himself 
 between two columns of flame, retreated into 
 Havana on Christmas Day, completely van- 
 quished. His resignation followed at once, 
 and was accepted. 
 
 Part of Campos' fame as a general rests 
 upon the building of the trochas. He found 
 them effectual in the last war for fencing the 
 enemy out of certain districts. The trocha is 
 a ditch nine feet deep, filled with water. On 
 each side is a wire fence. On the east bank 
 (always the one toward the insurgents) is a 
 beaten path, patrolled by cavalrymen, and 
 having light artillery defences. On the west 
 
Cuba at a Glance yi 
 
 side are detached earthworks, guarded by in- 
 fantry and connected by telephone. Ap- 
 proaches are protected by rifle pits. 
 
 In this war a trocha was first built between 
 Puerto Principe and Santa Clara provinces. 
 The insurgents easily evaded it. Another was 
 built through Las Cruces and Las Lajas, but 
 the rebels found their way through that, also. 
 The Spanish retreated still further toward the 
 west, and the capital, and constructed a third 
 trocha from Matanzas to the Bay of La Broa. 
 
 The insurgent burning of the sugar fields 
 has been criticised severely by onlookers, and 
 has been held up by the Spanish as an example 
 of the reckless, uncivilized methods of their 
 foes. In reality, it is part of a distinctly 
 planned policy. From the sugar crop Spain re- 
 ceives in peace the largest part of its Cuban 
 revenues. To destroy the crop is to cripple 
 Spain, already nearly bankrupt, and to cripple 
 Spain enough is to make Cuba free, indeed. 
 
 General Valeriano Weyler, known in Cuba 
 as "the Butcher," succeeded Campos. He was 
 warmly received in Havana, where he arrived 
 on February 10, 1896. He did not take the 
 field against the rebels until the following No- 
 vember. This was due to the rainy season, 
 
72 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 which, setting in a few months after his ar- 
 rival, made fighting impossible until late in the 
 fall. 
 
 Maceo was in the western part of Pinar del 
 Rio when Weyler sallied out of Havana, avow- 
 edly to crush him. Gomez, in Havana prov- 
 ince, he ignored for the time. When he reached 
 Pinar del Rio he met the Cubans in ten en- 
 gagements in fifteen days. The skirmishes and 
 battles were at Paso Real, Candelario, Rio 
 Hondu, San Cristobal, Neuva Empressa, Guira 
 Melera and Iniquica. In each the Spanish suf- 
 fered loss. Moreover, they were obliged to 
 swallow the mortification of watching from 
 the rear the victorious advance of the "rebels" 
 toward Havana. They themselves returned to 
 the western part of the island later, and Wey- 
 ler re-entered the capital. 
 
 While Maceo was in Havana province he 
 was killed by the Spanish under Major Ciru- 
 jada. 
 
 General Weyler wrote statements concern- 
 ing the complete pacification of various prov- 
 inces of the island, but, in January, 1897, 
 raised some question as to the trustworthi- 
 ness of his own reports by again leaving Ha- 
 vana to engage in warfare in the "pacified" in- 
 
Cuba at a Glance 73 
 
 terior. Again, he gained no advantage what- 
 ever, and soon the rainy season forced him to 
 give up active hostilities. 
 
 By the time another dry season had arrived 
 Weyler was immersed in difficulties with his 
 home government. In October, 1897, Don 
 Ramon Blanco, the present Captain General, 
 was sent to succeed him, and he returned to 
 Spain. Blanco has, so far, followed the exam- 
 ple of his predecessors, and failed to put down 
 the rebellion. 
 
X. 
 
 THE most conspicuous man in the 
 Spanish forces during the present 
 Cuban war has been General Val- 
 eriano Weyler y Nicolau, Marquis 
 of Tenerifre. He came widely heralded as "the 
 Butcher." His popular title he gained in the 
 Ten Years' War, where, as a colonel, he had 
 followed the fortunes of Spain. The Cubans 
 told of his cruelty to women and children. 
 His "concentration" policy seemed to lend 
 color to the reports of his foes. His striking 
 personality has been most graphically de- 
 scribed by Elbert Rappleye: — 
 
 "And what a picture! A little man. An ap- 
 parition of blacks — black eyes, black hair, 
 black beard — dark, exceedingly dark com- 
 plexion; a plain black attire, black shoes, black 
 tie, a very dirty shirt and soiled standing col- 
 lar, with no jewelry and not a relief from the 
 aspect of darkness anywhere on his per- 
 
 son. 
 
 * ^ * 
 
 "His eyes far apart, bright, alert and strik- 
 
Cuba at a Glance 75 
 
 ing, took me in at a glance. His face seemed to 
 run to chin, his lower jaw protruding far be- 
 yond any ordinary indication of firmness, per- 
 sistence or will power. * * * His nose 
 is aquiline, bloodless and obtrusive. 
 
 "Inferior physically, unsoldierly in bearing, 
 exhibiting no trace of refined sensibilities, nor 
 pleasure in the gentle associations that others 
 live for, he is, nevertheless, the embodiment of 
 mental acuteness, craft, unscrupulous, fearless 
 and of indomitable perseverance." 
 
 Mr. Rappleye's inference of a cruel nature 
 expressed by this exterior seems borne out 
 by occasional reports from the seat of war, 
 even those making no especial mention of 
 characteristic "butcher" methods. One such 
 dealt chiefly with his escape from death in the 
 Siguranca mountains in February, 1897. His 
 horse was shot under him as he rode to attack 
 an insurgent hospital! 
 
 Weyler says frankly and egotistically of him- 
 self:— 
 
 "I care not for America, England — any 
 one — but only for the treaties we have with 
 them. They are the law. * * * I know I 
 am merciless, but mercy has no place in war. 
 I know the reputation which has been built up 
 
j6 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 for me. * * * I care not what is said about 
 me unless it is a lie so grave as to occasion 
 alarm. I am not a politician. I am Weyler." 
 
 Weyler was born forty-nine years ago in 
 Palma, capital of Majorca, one of the Balearic 
 islands. 
 
 Campos was a different sort of man, "fat, 
 good natured, wise, philosophical, slow in 
 his mental processes, clear in his judgment, 
 emphatic in his opinions, outspoken and 
 withal lovable, humane, conservative, con- 
 structive, progressive, with but one project 
 ever before him — the glorification of Spain as 
 a motherland and a figure among peaceful, en- 
 lightened nations." 
 
 Campos — Arsenio Martinez Campos — was 
 born in Cuba in 1834. He was educated in 
 Madrid. In 1870 he was a brigadier against 
 the Carlist insurrection. He fought in the 
 Ten Years' War as general and brought it to a 
 close at Zanjon. As Minister of War and 
 Prime Minister in 1879 he tried to redeem his 
 pledges to Cuba, but received no support 
 from his colleagues or the Cortes. 
 
 W'eyler's successor, Don Ramon Blanco y 
 Erenas, Marquis of Pena Plata, has been all 
 his life a man of war. He won his first renown 
 
Cuba at a Glance 77 
 
 in the war against the Carlists. In 1879 ne 
 was Captain General of Cuba. At Catalonia 
 and in the Philippines he has been governor. 
 His methods are not the lenient ones of Cam- 
 pos, and he himself complacently counts his 
 executions and the hundreds of Philippinian 
 rebels whom he deported to the frightful 
 Spanish colonial jails. 
 
 In strong contrast to these leaders and their 
 methods are the leaders of the Cuban cause 
 and their methods. Their commander in 
 chief, Maximo Gomez, says to all his men : — 
 
 "Do not risk your life unnecessarily. You 
 have only one and can best serve your country 
 by saving it. Dead men cannot fire guns. 
 Keep your head cool, your machete warm, 
 and we will yet free Cuba." 
 
 He is about seventy-five years old. He was 
 born in Santo Domingo. At one time he was 
 a soldier in the Spanish army, serving as a cap- 
 tain under Valeriano Weyler. 
 
 He is described by an English writer who 
 joined the insurrectionists in Cuba thus: — 
 
 "He is a study in repose or in action. Slen- 
 der in build, not over one hundred and forty 
 pounds in weight, about five feet seven inches 
 in height, straight as an arrow. His face is 
 
78 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 tanned; his hair and mustache are iron gray; 
 his cheek bones are prominent and his chin 
 firm. His cool, calculating eyes seem at first 
 completely to measure you, and then the face 
 breaks into a reassuring smile. On the saddle, 
 the horse is a part of him. He never seems 
 to guide it. 
 
 ''His Spanish love of externals is seen in his 
 superb black stallion, in his faultless uniform, 
 in glittering pistols that hang from his belt, in 
 the gold mounted carbine flung from the pom- 
 mel of his saddle, in his decorated sabre, and in 
 the grandeur of his manner whenever he comes 
 into contact with somebody from the world 
 without, especially an American." 
 
 Not less interesting than "Cuba's cham- 
 pion was the man whom the Spaniards have 
 described as an ignorant negro, Antonio Ma- 
 ceo. He was born in 1843 in Santiago de 
 Cuba. Twenty-three times he was wounded 
 by the Spanish troops in various uprisings. 
 His chest was pierced through and through 
 and his continued existence seemed miracu- 
 lous. Hatred of the Spanish was with his 
 family a traditional feeling. Six of his broth- 
 ers died fighting Spain, and one, Filipe, lives 
 an invalid on account of his wounds. 
 
Cuba at a Glance 79 
 
 Antonio Maceo in the Ten Years' War 
 reached the rank of major general by the 
 sheer force of his military genius. In this war 
 he outwitted Spain's most renowned generals 
 and defeated with his small, poorly trained 
 forces the flower of the Spanish army. He 
 was killed finally in Havana province in De- 
 cember, 1896, and it will probably never be 
 doubted by his followers that his death was 
 due to the disloyalty of one among his allies. 
 
 General Martinez Campos, writing to 
 Spain's Prime Minister in 1878, said of him: — 
 
 "It is very difficult to arrange peace in San- 
 tiago de Cuba (Zanjon Treaty), where Anto- 
 nio Maceo rules. He was a peasant, and is now 
 a general. His ambition is enormous, his cour- 
 age great, his prestige immense among his 
 countrymen. He is a man of high natural tal- 
 ent, and for him nothing could be done, not- 
 withstanding the wishes of the Cuban gov- 
 ernment." 
 
 So far the civil authorities in Cuba have 
 not played so brilliant a part in its history as 
 the military leaders. The first president of the 
 republic established in 1895 was Salvador Cis- 
 neros Betancourt, Marquis de Santa Lucia. 
 He was born in Puerto Principe in 1832. It 
 
80 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 was his privilege to sign the decree abolishing 
 slavery in 1870. He lived in New York from 
 1878 until 1886 agitating new revolutionary 
 movements. He was in favor of annexation 
 to the United States, a view in which his suc- 
 cessor, Bartolome Maso, does not agree with 
 him. 
 
 Maso was born in Manzanillo and educated 
 at Havana University. He was a wealthy 
 planter, but he threw aside his fortune to fight 
 in the Ten Years' War. He was imprisoned 
 and deported for denouncing the bad faith of 
 the Spaniards after the Zanjon Treaty. He 
 succeeded Cisneros in October, 1897. Ac- 
 cording to the constitution of the Cuban Re- 
 public, officers of the government serve for 
 two years. 
 
XL 
 
 AFTER the treaty of peace which 
 concluded the Ten Years' War Cu- 
 ba's right to representation in the 
 Cortes appears to have been rec- 
 ognized. The word "appears" is used advised- 
 ly, for Cuba's representatives, exactly calcu- 
 lated, amount to three senators from the prov- 
 ince of Havana, one from Santiago and one 
 from the Society of the Friends of the Coun- 
 try. Eight deputies for more than one million 
 of Cubans! 
 
 They are further permitted thirty deputies 
 elected by popular ballot, one representative 
 for every 50,000 inhabitants. 
 
 The clause "elected by popular ballot" is 
 important, for it may thus be easily under- 
 stood that the Spanish natives and the Cuban 
 Volunteers expect to influence the elections. 
 That they are successful is evidenced in the 
 fact that last spring out of thirty deputies 
 twenty-six were natives of Spain. 
 
 In spite of the Treaty of Zanjon and the 
 
82 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 supplementary Act of 1879 Madrid's colonial 
 policy would seem still to be characterized by 
 a system of monopoly and a lack of sincerity. 
 
 The head of the military government in 
 Cuba is all powerful. His title is Governor 
 General. In 1825, when Cuba gained the title 
 of "The Ever Faithful Isle," the functions of 
 this personage might have been defined as 
 those of a despot. To-day he may be said to 
 retain the same liberties of action. His ap- 
 pointment is by the Crown and endures for 
 not less than three years and not more than 
 five. Of the civil, ecclesiastical, military and 
 naval organizations he is chief. He is at the 
 head of an army consisting of 13,000 troops, 
 gathered from Spain and salaried out of the 
 Cuban exchequer. 
 
 Subject to the Governor General's summons 
 is a body known as the Council of Administra- 
 tion, composed of thirty members. Fifteen 
 are appointed by the Crown, fifteen are elect- 
 ed by the provinces; but, as is customary under 
 Spanish diplomacy, a safe majority of Penin- 
 sulars or ultra-loyalists is assured. 
 
 The Council of Administration is peculiar, 
 not only in that it serves without pay, but 
 that, being held personally and financially re- 
 
Cuba at a Glance 83 
 
 sponsible if its votes displease, it is always in 
 danger of being sued for damages. Besides 
 being depended upon to give universal satis- 
 faction it has a number of other duties, among 
 them the preparation of receipts and expendi- 
 tures for the review of the Cortes and the 
 framing of resolutions on any important pub- 
 lic matter. But here, too, the Governor Gen- 
 eral is all powerful. If he approve these reso- 
 lutions they pass into effect, if not he holds 
 them over. Indeed, his authority is so su- 
 preme that he may suspend such members of 
 the administrative council as are trouble- 
 some up to the number of fourteen, or he may 
 even suspend them all after consultation with 
 another body known as the Council of Au- 
 thorities. He may then proceed, the latter 
 body always, however, apprising the home 
 government of any differences that may dis- 
 turb his amicable relations with the Council 
 of Administration. 
 
 The Council of Authorities is composed ex- 
 clusively of high dignitaries, the Archbishop 
 of Santiago, the Bishop of Havana, the com- 
 manding officers of the army and navy, the 
 chief justice of the Supreme Court of Havana, 
 the Attorney General, the head of the Depart- 
 
84 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 ment of Finances and the director of the local 
 administration. 
 
 The Governor General's power extends 
 even to the control of the provinces, each of 
 which is nominally conducted by a Governor 
 of its own, an appointee of the Crown. He 
 has, for instance, the authority to suspend, on 
 the report of the Governor, any of the pro- 
 vincial assemblies, which are elected for a 
 term of four years. 
 
 City governments are under the control of 
 a mayor, also subject to removal at the Gov- 
 ernor General's pleasure. 
 
 Two superior courts are included in the ju- 
 dicial system of Cuba, which are not of over- 
 weening importance, since in the Governor 
 General, under a provision of 1878, is vested 
 the power to overrule any decisions of any 
 court, or even to postpone the enactment of 
 any decree proceeding from the government 
 at Madrid. 
 
 Assisted by the rector of the University of 
 Havana, like himself a native of Spain, the 
 Governor General has supreme voice in the 
 educational system of Cuba. Besides the Uni- 
 versity of Havana, there is a collegiate insti- 
 tute in each of the six provinces, where de- 
 
Cuba at a Glance 85 
 
 grees may be conferred. When there is the 
 ability and desire to establish schools, educa- 
 tion is compulsory; otherwise, the law of 1880, 
 enforcing education, is ignored. 
 
 The laws governing associations and socie- 
 ties are rigid. Their purposes, constitutions 
 and by-laws must be submitted to the gover- 
 nor of the province in which they are organ- 
 ized. He may have the privilege of consider- 
 ing himself an honored guest at their meet- 
 ings whenever he so desires. Furthermore, he 
 may at his discretion, perhaps because a note 
 of revolution seems to be present, dissolve 
 the assemblage and forbid its meeting again 
 until the superior court of the district has 
 passed upon his judgment. 
 
 The governor of each province is vested 
 with the power of censorship over the publica- 
 tion of all literature, and with the Governor 
 General rests full authority to prohibit or per- 
 mit any pictures or caricatures. 
 
 Anonymous publications are absolutely for- 
 bidden, no matter how innocent. It is obliga- 
 tory that three copies of any issue whatsoever 
 be sent to the governor or mayor to be passed 
 upon. 
 
 Jews and Protestants are at a discount on 
 
86 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 the island. The Roman Catholic is the only 
 religion tolerated, and no one would be per- 
 mitted to advance doctrines contrary to the 
 established Church, though he would be per- 
 mitted to live in Cuba and conduct his wor- 
 ship privately. 
 
 A provisional government was formed by 
 the insurgents in September, 1895. There 
 were present twenty representatives from all 
 the provinces but Pinar del Rio. They drew 
 up and adopted a constitution and elected of- 
 ficers of state, of whom the President was 
 Salvador Cisneros Betancourt. Bartolome 
 Maso was Vice President, who has since be- 
 come President. 
 
 This government has its seat at Cubitas, on 
 the top of a mountain twenty-five miles from 
 Puerto Principe, but it is in reality a sort of 
 peripatetic committee of affairs, whose au- 
 thority is largely on paper. 
 
 Cuban currency is in a remarkably tangled 
 state. The unit of measure is an ounce of gold, 
 but Spanish gold, being less fine than Ameri- 
 can, is not worth so much. These two golds 
 and silver circulate confusedly. Paper money 
 is not used. 
 
XII. 
 
 (Physical Cuba.) 
 
 CUBA is in the northern part of the 
 torrid zone, just south of Florida. 
 It lies between 74 degrees and 85 
 degrees west longtitude and 19 
 degrees and 23 degrees north latitude. It con- 
 tains 43,314 square miles, an area equal to 
 England, excluding Wales, or one-fourth of 
 Spain. It is twenty-nine times the size of 
 Long Island. Its average breadth is eighty 
 miles. The Island of Pines, the largest of the 
 neighboring islands which belong to it, is 
 1,214 square miles in area. 
 
 According to the last official census in 1887, 
 there were 1,631,687 inhabitants. Of these 
 one-fifth were natives of Spain, 10,500 were 
 whites of foreign blood, 485,187 were free ne- 
 groes, about 50,000 were Chinese and the rest 
 native Cubans. 
 
 The coast is low and flat, and is approached 
 in many parts by islands and reefs. It meas- 
 ures, exclusive of its indentations, 2,200 miles. 
 
88 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 Including them, it measures 7,000 miles. It 
 has many admirable and well protected har- 
 bors, especially on the north side, where are 
 Havana, Matanzas and Cardenas. 
 
 It is as far from the Florida mainland as 
 New York is from Albany. 
 
 From Key West to the nearest point on the 
 Cuban coast is 36 miles. 
 
 From Key West to Havana is 93 miles. 
 From New York to Havana is 1,413 miles. 
 From New Orleans to Havana is 475 miles. 
 Above the lowlands of the coast rise grazing 
 and farm lands. Four- fifths of the land is a 
 fertile plain. The rest is dense forest land, in 
 which are found rich woods, mahogany, ebony, 
 cedar, palm and granadillo. 
 
 The eastern section, especially the province 
 of Santiago de Cuba, is mountainous. In it 
 are found minerals — iron ore, fine steel, gold 
 and silver in small quantities, copper in abun- 
 dance, fine bituminous coal and marble. 
 
 Tobacco and sugar are the chief products 
 and constitute the chief wealth of Cuba, al- 
 though cotton and coffee are also grown. In 
 Pinar del Rio is raised the finest tobacco in 
 the world. 
 
 On the coast the climate is that of the torrid 
 
Cuba at a Glance 89 
 
 zone. Inland it is more temperate. In the 
 country districts in the provinces of Matanzas 
 and Havana even the summer period is 
 healthy. In the provinces of Puerto Principe 
 and Santiago de Cuba the character of the 
 country is hilly and the temperature equable. 
 The western part of the island is as habitable 
 as western Pennsylvania. 
 
 The simplest precautions and the observ- 
 ance of most ordinary hygienic rules would 
 enable troops to operate in Cuba with no> more 
 danger of disease than they would incur in the 
 southern part of the United States. The 
 tropical fruits should be avoided by unaccli- 
 mated persons. Sugar cane, which, in spite of 
 the destruction of the fields, is still to be found 
 in Cuba, is not ripe until the fall. Earlier in 
 the year it is sweet but very watery, and con- 
 tains large amounts of glutinous substances 
 conducive to intestinal troubles. Yellow 
 fever exists in Matanzas, Sagua, Havana, Car- 
 denas and Santiago almost continuously. The 
 interior cities, however, are seldom visited by 
 it and it does not exist at all in the country. 
 A mild form of malaria prevails throughout 
 the lowlands. Sunstroke is very uncommon 
 among the natives, but might prevail among 
 
90 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 recently arrived troops unless they were prop- 
 erly clothed and had frequent opportunities 
 for bathing. 
 
 The diet for fresh arrivals in Cuba should 
 consist of plenty of meat, few vegetables, cof- 
 fee in generous quantities and no alcohol at 
 all. 
 
 England advises woollen underwear for her 
 tropical troops and colonists, but those who' 
 have lived long in Cuba declare that linen, 
 light both in weight and color, is the proper 
 material for the Cuban climate. Wool is not 
 desirable there because it retains dampness 
 longer than linen, and dampness is one of 
 the conditions which will confront the Ameri- 
 can troops. 
 
 From the first of May until the end of Octo- 
 ber is the rainy season. This is the only real 
 drawback to the Cuban climate, for its heat 
 and cold are never of the extreme variety and 
 there is only a slight difference between the 
 summer and winter temperatures. The av- 
 erage temperature in Havana in the hottest 
 month is only 81 degrees Fahrenheit, in the 
 coldest only 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Breezes 
 redeem even the rainy season. The average 
 number of rainy days during a month in the 
 
Cuba at a Glance 91 
 
 rainy season is eight or ten. The rainfall is 
 generally in the afternoon. Earthquakes are 
 of rare occurrence, Santiago de Cuba being 
 more frequently visited by them than any 
 other province. 
 
 The official political divisions of the island 
 are Pinar del Rio, the westernmost of the 
 provinces; Havana, Matanzas, Santa Clara, 
 Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba, lying 
 east of one another in the order named. Each 
 of these provinces is named from its capital 
 city. 
 
 Havana, the chief city of the island, has a 
 fluctuating population of about two hundred 
 thousand. It contains many fine buildings and 
 many squalid ones. To the tourist it is very 
 picturesque. The harbor, if properly dredged, 
 could shelter the navies of the world. Its chief 
 defences are the Castillo de la Punta, on the 
 west of the harbor, and the Castillo de la 
 Morro and San Carlos de la Cabana, to the 
 east. At the head of one arm of Havana bay is 
 the fort which commands both the city and 
 the adjacent country — the Santo Domingo de 
 Atares. The Castillo del Principe is the other 
 principal fortification of Havana. 
 
 Second in commercial importance to Ha- 
 
92 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 vana is Matanzas, which lies about seventy- 
 four miles from Havana, on the northern coast 
 of the island. It has a population of about 
 fifty thousand. It is one of the most beauti- 
 fully situated cities in Cuba. 
 
 Santiago^ de Cuba is the most flourish- 
 ing city in the eastern part of the island. It 
 has an admirable harbor, communicating with 
 the sea through a narrow passage. Its most 
 conspicuous defence is called Morro Castle. 
 
 The most modern city of importance in 
 Cuba is Cienfuegos, in the province of Santa 
 Clara, It has a population of over twenty-six 
 thousand. Its harbor is one of the best on the 
 southern coast. 
 
 Another important city on the northern 
 coast is Cardenas. It is east of Havana about 
 one hundred miles. It has a population of 
 over twenty thousand, has a flourishing trade 
 and large manufactories. 
 
 The eastern point of the island is Cape 
 Maisi, and the western Cape St. Antonio. At 
 the western end of the south shore of the 
 province of Santiago de Cuba, opposite Cape 
 Maisi, is Cape Cruz. Between these two capes 
 runs the Sierra Maestra range. The whole 
 eastern part of Santiago de Cuba is mountain- 
 
Cuba at a Glance 93 
 
 ous, and broken mountain ranges lie through- 
 out the island. 
 
 The Sierra Maestra range changes its name 
 in about the middle of its course, and becomes 
 the Sierra de Cobre, or Copper Mountains. 
 Here is the highest point of land in Cuba — 
 Blue Peak (Pico Turquino), 8,320 feet high. 
 
 Rivers are numerous, but not large or often 
 navigable. Many of them "lose themselves." 
 The largest of them is the Cauto, in Santiago 
 de Cuba, which is navigable for fifty miles. 
 The Chorrera, or Almendares, supplies Ha- 
 vana with water. The largest one on the 
 northern coast is the Sagua la Grande, ninety 
 miles long and navigable for twenty miles. 
 
 Lakes are comparatively few in Cuba. They 
 lie mainly near the coast swamps, but there 
 are some also in the mountains. 
 
 Santiago de Cuba, besides its mountains, 
 has wonderful cascades, caves and cataracts. 
 United States Navy Lieutenant Andrew 
 Rowan, in "The Island of Cuba," says of this 
 province: — 
 
 "This extremely broken and precipitous 
 country is the least known, as it is the most 
 difficult of access of any of the political divi- 
 sions of the island. Roads are few and poor, 
 
94 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 but the great diversity of products, due to 
 rapid change in the climate, which is caused 
 by the difference in elevation, makes this re- 
 gion one of the most wonderful in the world. 
 The cascades, cataracts and natural portals, 
 surrounded by an ever-verdant foliage, com- 
 bined with numerous species of flowering or- 
 chids and other tropical flowers, and with an 
 animal life in all its gayest colors, present here 
 a picture such as is furnished at but few points 
 on the globe." 
 
XIII. 
 
 Notes from the Front. 
 
 A LETTER FROM FREDERIC REM- 
 INGTON, ON BOARD THE BATTLE 
 SHIP IOWA. 
 
 I BOARDED the tug which took 
 all the shore leave men off to their 
 ships and was "landed" (one 
 might almost say it) on the Iowa 
 — battle ship — an iron island floating on the 
 sea. 
 
 The Captain was the celebrated Fighting 
 Bob Evans of common report, but aboard 
 ship I found him a calm-eyed man — very plain 
 and straightforward in his affairs. It was Cap- 
 tain Evans simply — and stand up when you 
 say it and have your statement straight, for 
 the weather roll in the Captain's eye as it turns 
 over your person is very severe and not en- 
 couraging. 
 
 To a shore man the environment of a mod- 
 ern battle ship is more strange than any dream. 
 It cock-tails up in your mind with a nut and 
 
96 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 bolt factory as a base — but the other mixtures 
 are like an international exhibition, a World's 
 Fair of people and things. The throb of 
 engines — the shrill squeeling of bo'suns' 
 whistles — electric lights — cranes swinging 
 coal in from the lighter 'longside, long guns 
 bigger than forest trees sticking everywhere, 
 sharp orders, gentlemanly officers in white 
 duck trousers, and bare-footed jackies running 
 about, monkey-like in their movements, 
 while marine guards strut martially across the 
 deck. 
 
 You go to the dining room — or, as they say, 
 "wardroom" — through another room which 
 makes you chilly because it is filled with long 
 fish-like torpedoes which are loaded with dy- 
 namite or other nervous things which are dif- 
 ficult to tolerate on intimate living terms. 
 
 And to-morrow we are going to war. One 
 doesn't in these days go to war often enough 
 to make it commonplace, and yet strain as I 
 would, hunt high and low, officers and sailor- 
 men, I could find nothing but the most deadly 
 apathy concerning the whole proceeding. I 
 don't think it was because they were overused 
 to going to war, but they have eaten and slept 
 and drilled and thought so much within this 
 
Cuba at a Glance 97 
 
 ship's sides that it has eaten up their other 
 thoughts. They are a part of the big machine 
 the Iowa, and she was built to go to war — so 
 why not ? 
 
 Every one was happy on the fine morning, 
 going to war. Sailors hate a blockade — they 
 dread inaction. They want to mix it up with 
 the batteries, but the blessed old United States 
 Army is not ready yet, so they must wait; but 
 they took it out of the soldiers, and dearly I 
 wished for some of them to be along to take 
 their own part — for it's no funeral of mine if 
 the tents, the grub, the mules and the guns are 
 not there ready for men to use. 
 
 "To-morrow may bring great things," 
 mused an officer alongside me. "What do 
 you think — a lieutenant at forty-five years of 
 age — what do you think?" sighed this har- 
 rowed soul. "A hero at forty-five years — I 
 did not enter the service to be a hero at forty- 
 five years. I told the Secretary a while ago 
 that when I died all I wanted on my tombstone 
 was 'Lieutenant B , U. S. Navy, Bun- 
 coed.' " 
 
 Do not imagine that this deep sentiment in- 
 terferes with my old friend — he likes to think 
 aloud about his trouble — and it's a good fash- 
 
98 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 ion very much affected by all the seagoing 
 men. 
 
 A fat little 'prentice boy became confidential 
 with me after introducing me to many ship's 
 mysteries, and said, "We are starving aboard 
 this ship — we have nothing to eat." 
 
 With surprise I turned on him — such a 
 startling statement — to think of Uncle Sam's 
 starving these brave "bullies" of his, but I kept 
 back my laugh, for the fat little rascal was 
 positively greasy, and his trousers strained 
 about his legs. 
 
 I can see the Captain up on the bridge, forty 
 feet above the water; the executive, Mr. 
 Rodgers, a sharp visaged gentleman, who goes 
 speeding about the ship hunting up trouble for 
 any man who looks comfortable; and the en- 
 gineer officers, who come up out of the coal 
 and grease for a breath of fresh air. The ma- 
 rine sergeant in charge of the after deck sweats 
 badly as he strides about, buttoned up to the 
 last gasp. The young officers in the steerage 
 show me a strange Burmah goddess — in mar- 
 ble — kept under lock and key, except when 
 they make their big medicine, and they told 
 me the story, but my lips are ice. 
 
 Sometimes things do happen, but they are 
 
Cuba at a Glance 99 
 
 little things. The black cat fell overboard one 
 morning, or the fox terrier who inhabits up 
 forward chased him overboard — we do not 
 know which. An alarm was promptly given — 
 it would never do to have a black cat lose her 
 life in such a way, for black cats in particular 
 are portentous things even when alive, but 
 dead ones are something awful. Who knows 
 what might happen after that? 
 
 So a boat was lowered and the big battle 
 bhip Iowa temporarily abandoned the blockade 
 of Havana and steamed in a circle, hunting one 
 lost black cat. The cat came alongside, paw- 
 ing the water frantically, and was rescued by a 
 jackie who went down the sea ladder and 
 grabbed her just in time. 
 
 With night it comes cool, and the officers 
 and men sit smoking in the shadow of the 
 superstructure, gazing at the lights of Havana 
 — we might be a yachting party off Newport, 
 only we are not. The guns are all shotted and 
 the watch on deck lies about them on the deck, 
 all ready on the instant. There are two little 
 tubs of Spanish gunboats in the harbor, which 
 come outside and are chased back. They ap- 
 pear to be monkeying with us, but if they get 
 near enough we will saw them off and have 
 fun with them. 
 
ioo Cuba at a Glance 
 
 The sea is like the water in your bath tub; 
 the iron plate of the Iowa is a griddle — the sky 
 is more red than blue, and a mosquito's wings 
 would create a hurricane in the air. 
 
 A Letter from Julian Hawthorne. 
 
 IN India the famine is the result of 
 natural causes, uncontrollable by 
 man, and to abate which every ef- 
 fort was made; you felt in looking 
 at the victims that all was being clone for 
 them that energy and intelligence could do, 
 and that humanity and science were united in 
 the effort to succor them. But in Cuba it is 
 another story. These people have starved in 
 a land capable of supplying tens of millions of 
 people with abundant food. The very ground 
 on which they lie down to breathe their last 
 might be planted with produce that would feed 
 them to repletion. But so far from any effort 
 to save them having been made by Spain, she 
 has wilfully and designedly compassed their de- 
 struction. She has driven them in from their 
 fields and plantations and forbidden them to 
 help themselves; the plantations themselves 
 have been laid waste, and should the miserable 
 reconcentrados attempt under the pretended 
 
Cuba at a Glance 101 
 
 kindly dispensation of Blanco to return to 
 their properties they would find the Spanish 
 guerillas lying in wait to massacre them. No 
 agony of either mind or body has been want- 
 ing. The wife has lost her husband, the 
 mother her children, the child its parents, the 
 husband his family. They have seen them die. 
 Often they have seen them slaughtered wan- 
 tonly as they lay helpless, waiting a slower end. 
 The active as well as the passive cruelties of 
 the Spaniards toward these people have been 
 well nigh unimaginable. The stories sent 
 home by journalists are uniformly within the 
 truth, for journalists are familiar with human 
 suffering of all kinds, and are not carried off 
 their feet by the sight of it. The comfortable 
 readers who did not believe a tithe of them at 
 home, when they have investigated for them- 
 selves declare that a tithe has not been told. 
 JULIAN HAWTHORNE. 
 
 A Letter from Robert W. Edgren. 
 
 ON the red-hot sand she lay, a 
 child of seven years — her black 
 hair matted with blood and dirt, 
 on her head a ghastly cut made 
 by a machete. Overhead the black buzzards 
 
io2 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 of Cuba soared in lessening circles. Near at 
 hand was a poor, palm thatched hut. At the 
 very threshold lay the body of another child, 
 starved and thin. The machete had been 
 there, too, and starvation had been robbed of 
 another victim. Inside the hut lay a man shot 
 through the back. His bloodless face, lying 
 on the hard earth, his nerveless skeleton hands 
 grasping in death some poor trinket that the 
 plunderers had failed to find of sufficient value 
 to warrant carrying away. I turned aside sick- 
 ened. On his horse sat the Spanish soldier, 
 our body guard kindly ordered by the com- 
 mandant to show us the scenery about Mont- 
 serrat. In the hot sun his eyes seem to nar- 
 row with amusement at the feeling displayed 
 by those fool "Americanos." It was a joke to 
 him. It amused him to see our looks of hor- 
 ror, and he showed his wolfish fangs in a grin 
 of satisfaction. The bundle of rags that we 
 had first seen moved a little. The Red Cross 
 doctor uttered an exclamation. In an instant 
 he was on his knees, and the little girl was care- 
 fully lifted in a pair of strong arms and carried 
 into the shade, and the buzzards flapped their 
 black wings in silent protest. Half an hour 
 later, when the ragged gash had been carefully 
 
Cuba at a Glance 103 
 
 dressed and the little patient opened her eyes 
 to look into strange faces the doctor heard 
 her story. 
 
 It was not an uncommon one — in Cuba. 
 
 "How did you get hurt?" 
 
 "Machete." 
 
 "Where is your father?" 
 
 "Machete; and my sister the soldiers — " 
 
 Then her eye caught the figure of our body 
 guard sitting on his horse, machete at his side, 
 and she uttered a faint cry of fear. No other 
 word would she utter. The terror of Span- 
 iards seals tongues in this land of murder and 
 rapine. She is dead now, poor child, but 
 others will take her place. The Spanish sol- 
 dier will never carry a clean blade while women 
 and children are unprotected. 
 
 ROBERT W. EDGREN. 
 
 General Fitzhugh Lee's Opinion. 
 
 THE Spanish soldiers are living al- 
 most from hand to mouth. They 
 have a good many barrels of flour 
 and a good deal of rice and some 
 potatoes, but not a great many, and a little 
 lard; but everything that the town of Havana 
 has received in the last four or five months has 
 
104 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 been taken from the United States by steamers 
 from New York, New Orleans and Tampa. 
 The Spanish soldiers are badly clothed and 
 very badly fed; not well organized; not drilled. 
 Nobody ever saw Spanish soldiers drill. The 
 same condition of things existed when Mr. 
 Cleveland asked me to go down there last June 
 a year ago. I gave him a report three weeks 
 after I got there, in which I told him there was 
 no chance, in my opinion, of the Spaniards ever 
 suppressing that insurrection, nor was there 
 any chance of the insurrectionists expelling 
 the Spanish soldiers from the island. 1 have 
 never thought that the insurgents had any- 
 thing except the skeleton form of a govern- 
 ment — a movable capital. I asked them one 
 day why they did not have some permanent 
 capital, and I think they gave a very good rea- 
 son. They said it would require a large force 
 to protect it and defend it, and that they could 
 not afford to mass up their men there; that the 
 capital and the government officers had to 
 move where thev could be safest. 
 
 # # #■ ■* # 
 
 (A Letter from Grover Flint) 
 "Were you ever at sea in an open boat, in 
 a tropical ocean, swept by squalls and torna- 
 does, and travelled only by filibusters and 
 
Cuba at a Glance 105 
 
 Spanish cruisers eager for their capture? We 
 were eleven in such a party — three Cuban of- 
 ficers, three Cuban coast pilots, a doctor of the 
 Sanitary Department, a newspaper correspond- 
 ent and three negro sailors. Our mascot, a 
 green and red parrot, which winked intelli- 
 gently when the word filibuster was men- 
 tioned, and which cried "Al machete! Al ma- 
 chete!" when excited, completed the makeup 
 of the party. Days dragged, and our ma- 
 terials came a little at a time. We lay beneath 
 the palm and wild grape trees, tortured by 
 mosquitoes and sand flies, half a mile from Na- 
 ternillos Light and the entrance to Nuevitas 
 Harbor. In that harbor lay a gunboat, and 
 another was on duty patrolling the coast for 
 a few miles to east and west of us. Stories 
 came from the town that our expedition was 
 the talk of the cafes, and the bogie of treach- 
 ery looked nearer to us than we cared at the 
 time to< admit. A government commission 
 with state papers and despatches would be no 
 mean capture, and we felt that our heads 
 would fetch a good price! 
 
 We were off at last, after twenty days of 
 toil and anxiety. The strain was too great for 
 the little group of watchers on land. Pru- 
 dence was thrown to the winds and a "Viva!" 
 
106 Cuba at a Glance 
 
 rose that a gust caught and carried over the 
 palm trees. " Viva Cuba! Viva la Independ- 
 encia!" from the shore was answered by a faint 
 "Al machete! Al machete!" from our boat. 
 Then a cloud passed over the moon and we 
 were fairly started on our journey. 
 
 Our first course lay due northwest toward 
 Naternillos Light, in order to make the pass 
 in the reefs that lie in front of the entrance to 
 Nuevitas Harbor. We tossed, in darkness, 
 half a mile to seaward of Naternillos Light, 
 and then sighted the light of Nuevitas Har- 
 bor. From this point we struck a north- 
 northwesterly course out through the reefs 
 and past the breakers. 
 
 The moon came out from beneath the 
 clouds, and we had fears, as we passed the sil- 
 ver path of its reflection, we might be seen 
 from the lighthouse and a gunboat sent after 
 us. We pitched along, constantly shipping 
 cold waves over our starboard bow that 
 drenched us to the skin, but making good 
 time. In an hour we had passed into the 
 darkness beyond the treachery of the moon's 
 rays, and felt a general sense of relief. 
 
 It was a rough, gusty night. Once a squall 
 struck us with a heavy fall of rain, and we took 
 
Cuba at a Glance 107 
 
 in all sail; but the wind settled down again to 
 a northeast blow, and we continued on our 
 course. We felt now that odds were no longer 
 against our escape, and, though shivering in 
 our scanty rags, wet and cold and unable to 
 sleep, we were contented. We all of us had 
 seen enough of Spanish atrocities to know 
 what it meant to be captured, and that the 
 authorities are not anxious for a repetition of 
 the lingering Competitor trial. 
 
 The sun of July 24 rose through banks of 
 purple clouds over a heavy sea, and a head 
 wind was still blowing from the northeast. 
 At noon the heat was blistering. We were off 
 the Columbus Banks, in English waters. Be- 
 low we could see a sandy bottom with beds of 
 brown sponges, and the lead told four fathoms. 
 
 Night closed at last, and some of us slept 
 in spite of the waves that still dashed over us, 
 while the others kept themselves awake by 
 bailing out the boat. 
 
 At sunrise on the 25th we sighted Green 
 Key. We landed there to stretch our cramped 
 limbs at six o'clock, and were welcomed to 
 English soil by a party of duck shooters from 
 Nassau." — Grover Flint. 
 
United States 
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 DESIGN PATENT APPUED FOB APRIL 30, 1898. G. H 
 
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