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A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


United States law against filibustering had been
effectively enforced-and let it be recorded here,
before the unfolding of secrets begins, that its
avoidance was accomplished through no shadow
of connivance at Washington, for every instrument at the hand of this government was exerted
to the utmost to prevent its infraction and to
maintain an attitude of strict neutrality-Cuba
might still be the victim of Spain's murderous
misrule, the acquisition of our entering wedge
into the West Indies-Porto Rico-would have
been postponed for years, and the Filipinos
might still be fighting with each other and the
Spaniards.
Laws against filibustering are eminently fitting in monarchial lands. No emperor, whether
ruling by divine right or right of might, wants
to see another emperor dethroned, and, perhaps,
compelled to work for a living along with the
unanointed, for fear of the effect the proceeding may have on his own subjects; but such
antiquated theories of government by suppression
have no place in a republic. Filibustering,
which often is misunderstood, is simply the art
of surreptitiously conveying munitions of war to
a people, or a part of a people, who are in rebellion against a government whose overthrow,
generally speaking, is sought because it is inefficient or corrupt, or both. Ordinarily the
means of warfare are held by the ruling power,
so it is necessary for the insurgents to secure
[   1




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


counter to other laws, but refused to do it. It
was the spirit of the thing which appealed to
me; I felt that I was, to the full length of my
ability and in the way to which I was best
suited, helping mankind by aiding the cause of
liberty, and at the same time satisfying my adventurous ambition. I tried to fight for my
own country, and when that failed I fought for
other countries. In the course of this long warfare I was several times arrested for filibustering, but never convicted; so, under our law,
which presumes every man to be innocent until
he is proven guilty, it must be considered that
I am entirely innocent of the high crimes and
misdemeanors to which I here confess for the
first time; until now I never have told a word
of what I have done or how I did it.
Whatever divergent views may be held as to
the ethics of filibustering, there will be no disagreement as to the proposition that it is extremely hazardous business. This was particularly true with reference to the Cuban revolution, for there we were constantly watched
and harassed by the United States government
through its navy, Revenue Cutter Service,
and customs officers, special Treasury agents,
and its powerful Secret Service, in addition to
the Spanish authorities with their war-ships,
Pinkerton detectives, and an army of spies, to
say nothing of the Spanish forces in Cuba.
Naturally, in the course of my activities, I have
[4]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


was doing and precisely what the probabilities
of success were, even though it frequently took
quick thinking to figure them out in a few seconds. It is at such times that one needs all
of his wits, and only the fool loses them.
I was born in the old "Dry Dock" section
of New York, almost on the bank of the East
River, on April 20, 1837. My parents came from
the County Longford, Ireland, where they were
neighbors of and related to the parents of Gen.
Phil. Sheridan. The O'Brien and Sheridan
families, so my mother told me, came to this
country on the same ship not long before I was
born, and my father turned from farmer to
machinist. George Steer's shipyard, at which
the famous yacht America and all of the Sandy
Hook pilot-boats were built, was only a block
from my home, and other yards celebrated in
those days-Webb's, Brown's, Collier's, Mackey's, Westervelt's, Roosevelt & Joyce's, and
English's-were clustered close about. Near
by were the Morgan and Novelty iron-works,
where boilers were built. But there were few
steamships in those days; sailors were sailors
then and machinists stayed ashore, where they
belonged. Tapering spars crisscrossed the skyline, and romance was in the air. Amid such
surroundings the prenatal influence was strong,
and the love of ships and salt water came to me
naturally.
The first thing I saw, that I can remember,
[6]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


and the wise man braces himself for its blows.
The "toll of the sea," spoken of in fear and with
bated breath, is a trifle when compared with the
murders of manufacturing machinery and the
wrecks that are piled up on the lee shore of competitive commerce. Those who lose their lives
at sea are few, while those who find new life
there are many, and there would be millions more
if Doctor Neptune did not charge such small
fees, for in these days the values of too many
things are fixed by the prices that are paid for
them.
I first crawled and then walked around the
neighboring shipyards, and after school I worked
in them, faithfully but without charge, spinning
oakum, tending pitch-pot, or wedging treenails.
At the time I considered that I assisted greatly
in fitting out the Mechanics' Own, a schooner
bought by a lot of mechanics who sailed her
around to California in 1849. My brother
Peter, seven years my senior, operated a ferry,
which consisted of a large rowboat equipped with
a sail, across to Greenpoint, and often took me
with him. In this way I learned how to handle
a boat, and also picked up much useful knowledge concerning Hell Gate, the well-named
tricky and tortuous channel which connects
Long Island Sound with the East River. The sea
lust came over me so rapidly and so strongly
that, without attempting to resist it, I ran away
from home and school when I was thirteen years
[8]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


young. I was too well acquainted with myself
to enlist as an able seaman, which I was tempted
to do; I knew that, when some smart young
officer undertook to tell me something about
which I was better qualified to give orders, there
would be trouble and I would be a candidate
for a court-martial. However, I kept my
weather-eye open until I found what looked like
a promising opportunity.
Following the consternation created by the
Confederate ram Virginia, or Merrimac, as she
was best known, when she sank the Cumberland
and destroyed the Congress in Hampton Roads,
the Illinois, Vanderbilt, Aroga, and Ocean Queen,
side-wheel ocean steamships, were hurriedly despatched from New York to Norfolk, where it was
proposed to use them in ramming the strange
new craft that had spread terror through the
Federal fleet. This plan was suggested to
President Lincoln by old Commodore Vanderbilt, who presented the ship bearing his name
to the government to aid in its execution.
Through the influence of Mr. Dickinson I was
appointed third officer of the Illinois. She was
commanded by Captain Babcock, a fine old
fighting skipper who had lost all sense of fear
while running a clipper ship out to the pirateinfested China Sea. The first officer was a man
named Deacon, who was afterward commodore
of the Alexander Line; and the second officer was
an adopted son of Mr. Stetson, who was then
[10]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


fleet. It was plain that her commander, Commodore Tattnall,, was no coward; neither was he
a fool, as he would have shown himself had he
ventured into the shoal water around Old Point.
His impressive defiance was repeated for two
hours every day for more than a week, but the
anxiously looked- for signal to advance was never
hoisted on the Minnesota. All of us on the
Illinois were ambitious to win the honor that
would come from sinking the naval star of the
Confederacy. The Vanderbilt was a faster ship
than ours, but we always kept a little in front of
the line so we would be first away when the
expected signal was broken out. The sides of
the Illinois were sloshed with oil until they shone
like a bottle, and if we had ever hit the Merrimac
we would have gone clear through her without
scratching our paint.
But we watched in vain for the signal that
would have given us a chance to make the
Illinois famous. I do not like to call a dead
man a coward, but I will say that Admiral
Goldsborough was the most cautious and conservative American I have ever known. There
is no doubt that he had orders from Washington
not to force a fight with the Merrimac, but no
man who does not know when and how to disobey orders ought ever to attain flag rank in the
United States navy, especially in time of war.
But for his slavish obedience to long-range
strategists we might have accomplished some[12]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


around until all on board were worn out, we were
obliged to put in at Nassau, leaking badly, for
repairs. On our arrival there the captain, an
old square-rigger who could not seem to get
the hang of handling a schooner, was discharged
by one of the owners, who accompanied us, and
I was put in command of the ship. It then developed that our cargo consisted chiefly of munitions of war and was intended for the Confederacy. On its delivery at Matamoras, which,
being a foreign port, was not blockaded, it was
to be immediately taken across the Rio Grande
to Brownsville, Texas, and distributed to the
Southern armies.
When I was let into this secret I was enthused, rather than in any degree deterred
from carrying out the expedition, and threw
my whole heart into it. Our repairs were
pushed with all possible speed, but before they
received the finishing touches the United States
consul developed a strong suspicion, which
might have been traced to the discharged captain, that we were carrying arms for the Confederacy and warned us not to leave port until
he had examined our cargo. The natural result
of this order was that we were over the bar and
on our way the next morning long before the
consul was out of bed. As we were going out
we met a Federal cruiser going in; but that gave
us no anxiety, for we knew we would be out of
sight long before her commander reached an
[14]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


French expedition took forcible possession of a
lot of lighters used for transporting heavy
cargo over the bar, with which to land a shipment
of arms for Maximilian, then Emperor of Mexico.
On my return to New York the owners of the
Deer bought a coasting-schooner for me and I
followed the palling pursuit of routine commercial navigation for three or four years. Wearying of that, I became an apprentice in the Hell
Gate Pilots Association. It was Hell Gate, too,
then, for that was before Pot Rock had been
blown away with dynamite and other especially
dangerous obstructions removed. There was no
towing in those days, and most of the ships that
went through the Gate were wind-jammers,
which meant that with a current running nine
knots an hour it required some skill to avoid
accidents, particularly with an unfavorable
wind. I had known the channel from boyhood
and was so familiar with its twists and turns and
all of its currents that I could take any ship
through it in any wind that blew, or with no
wind at all, for when one knew the way it was
simply a matter of drifting from one current
into another and letting them carry the vessel
along. After serving my unnecessary but compulsory apprenticeship I worked for two years
under a provisional license. This entitled me to
pilot ships drawing up to eight feet of water, but
I stole many more that drew twice as much.
Pilotage fees were based on draft, but aside from
[16]




TROUBLED WATERS


that I preferred the big fellows. When a fullfledged pilot caught me on a ship that drew more
than eight feet, he chased me away; but I usually
picked up another one just as large. I had a
clean record, and received my full license as a
Hell Gate pilot on July 95, 1871.
My long acquaintance with the channel and
a recklessness that was much more apparent than
real gained me the sobriquet of "Daredevil
Johnny," and I was known by that name for
years. If I was a daredevil I was a cautious one,
for I never so much as scratched a ship. It occasionally happened that when a bunch of ships
were going up together on the last of the floodtide in a fluky breeze and I was fighting for the
lead, I would knock the seaweed off some of the
rocks; but I always knew just how much weed
there was at that particular spot, and there was
always room for a sheet of paper, at least, between
my ship and the rock-they never came together. The captains of many of the ships that
went up through Hell Gate kept the pilot aboard
until they had cleared Long Island Sound, so
our operations often extended to Montauk
Point and even farther. For a time I was regularly employed by Clark & Seaman, two pleasant
old Quakers who operated the steamships George
Washington and General Cromwell between New
York and Halifax. I would go up to Halifax
on one ship and return with the other. Not
long after I left their service both ships were lost,
[17]




TROUBLED WATERS


east. By the time we let go our anchor in six
fathoms of water it was blowing a living gale
and kicking up a tremendous sea. I knew we
were off New Haven and close inshore, but the
snow was so thick one couldn't see a hundred
yards. In some way that I never quite understood we got our canvas in, and I rowed-and was
blown-ashore in my Hell Gate pilot-boat-a
clinker-built craft fourteen feet long and a great
sea-boat-and telegraphed the owners of the
ship. They sent up a new crew; and after the
sea had subsided a bit I got a tug to take out the
new men and bring in the suffering Japs, who
were placed in a hospital and given every attention their condition required.
While we were dragging our anchor, waiting
for the new crew, three ships went by on their
way out to sea. Palmer, the pilot on one of
them, took to his boat in the shelter of Black
Point Bay and managed to reach the shore, but
the two other pilots were carried across the
Atlantic, as it was considered impossible for
them to land. One of them, named Gibbon,
tried to make Block Island in his pilot-boat, but
lost an oar and was helpless. The ship wore
around, and, by a lucky accident, picked him
up; but, in the sea that was running, the rescue
was not seen from the lighthouse on the island.
The light-keepers thought I was Gibbon, as they
said I was the only pilot who was foolhardy
enough to launch his little boat in such
[19]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


weather; and they reported that I had been
drowned.
When we got the Mohawk to going again with
the fresh crew, we fetched Montauk Point and
stood out to sea, with me still on board, but with
no intention of staying there. Had it not been
for the gale I would have left the ship inside of
the Point, but the captain was nervous, and
I wanted to see him well clear of the land.
There had been plenty of wind in the Sound,
but outside, where it had a clear sweep, it was
blowing great guns, and no mistake. The captain insisted on taking me to India with him,
but I assured him that the United States was
good enough for me and I would stay here.
By the time the ship had a good offing we were
too far out for me to attempt to reach Block
Island, and I was on the point of taking to my
boat and letting the gale blow me back to
Montauk Point when I saw a schooner, which
proved to be the Hasbrouck, standing down the
coast. From the fact that she was flying light
I suspected that she was bound for some coalport. I told the captain I was going aboard of
her. Vehemently protesting that I was crazy
and that no boat could live two minutes in the
sea that was piling up around us, he changed his
course a little so as to bring us closer together
when the schooner passed under our stern. I
got safely away from the lee of the Mohawk and,
with the aid of a deftly thrown line from the
[Ol 




II


A VENTURE IN TWO REVOLUTIONS
T was in connection with the Colombian revolution of 1885, the chief feature of which was
the burning of the city of Colon by Pedro Prestan, that I became a full-fledged filibuster. Dr.
Rafael Nufez was president of Colombia, and
things were going badly with him. What
amounted to a state of civil war existed in five
districts, including Panama, and the president's
enemies were very active. In the fall of 1884,
in a message to Congress, he bemoaned the fact
that, as he phrased it: "The very foundations
of our country are undermined. Revolutions
are become a safe and lucrative profession." In
the following January the rebels took possession
of the lower Magdalena River, Colombia's only
waterway worth a name, over which traffic to
and from Bogota, the capital, was and still is
handled, and occupied the ports of Barranquilla,
Savanilla, and Colon, on the Caribbean coast,
and Buenaventura and Panama on the Pacific
side.
About that time the City of Mexico was secretly chartered from Lord & Austin, by the New
[22]




TWO REVOLUTIONS
York'agents for the insurgents, to carry a cargo
of arms and ammunition to Savanilla. The
Mexico had been unable to compete with an
English line running from New York to Halifax,
and was laid up alongside of the dry-dock at
Erie Basin in Brooklyn. I was asked to take
command of the expedition, and gladly accepted the commission. As a part of the contract I was required to get the cargo on board,
which gave me my first lesson in dodging the
customs officials, whose duty it is to prevent
the shipment of munitions of war into the territory of a friendly power, if they are to be used
against the existing government. It was suspected that a filibustering expedition was about
to be sent away from New York, and the agents
for the rebels were so closely watched that any
activity on their part would have spoiled the
whole plan. Therefore, to minimize the chance
of discovery, I proceeded to arrange things along
plain and simple lines, which are always the best..Much of my success in my well-chosen profession was due to the fact that I made it a rule
to take the shortest practicable route between
two points and did things in a natural way,
whereas those who were seeking to defeat my
ends figured that I would take a roundabout
way, to avoid capture, and act unnaturally.
They set their traps by that chart, with the
result that they never caught anything. The
reason why most men fail in their undertakings
[ls]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


is that the first thing they do when they are
confronted with a problem which requires some
thought is to complicate it, on the theory, evidently, that the solution which suggests itself
is too simple, and therefore must be wrong. I
always sought to avoid complications; these I
left to the detectives, who revel in them.
The crew of the Mexico had been discharged
when she was laid up, and she was in charge of
the mate, a person named John H. McCarthy,
who, it developed, was far from an adventurous
spirit. After having made all of the arrangements I went down to the ship one evening
and sent McCarthy home, telling him to come
aboard in the morning, along with the new crew
that had been engaged, and that I would act as
ship-keeper for the night. Along about ten o'clock,
when all was quiet in and around the Basin, a
steam-lighter slipped alongside with the cargo.
The Mexico's side ports were opened, and
through them a great lot of field-guns, rifles,
and ammunition were taken on board and stored
in the 'tween decks, aft of the engine-room. Then
the ports and hatches were closed and the
lighter steamed softly away before daylight,
leaving no apparent trace of her visit. In the
morning the crew came aboard, followed by two
members of the revolutionary party, whose
presence I accounted for with the casual statement that they were going down as passengers.
John Morrisey-when this is written the rank[ 24 




TWO REVOLUTIONS


ing chief engineer of the Ward Line-was our
chief engineer, and it was fortunate that he was
the opposite type of man from McCarthy. We
took on stores at once and headed out in the
afternoon, ostensibly for Kingston, Jamaica, for
fruit. No one suspected that that was not our
real destination or that we carried any cargo.
We made good weather of it down through
Crooked Island Passage and on past the east
end of Cuba and Jamaica. When the mate saw
that I did not haul up for Kingston he asked,
with surprise, if we were not going to Jamaica.
"We'll stop there on our way back," I told him.
That set them all to guessing. There was a
free exchange of ideas, some of which I overheard; but they couldn't figure it out, and none
of them seemed disposed to ask any more questions. The next night it blew up half a gale,
and we rolled around in the seaway until the
cargo got adrift. Morrisey told McCarthy he
could hear a lot of stuff knocking about and
crashing against the engine-room bulkhead, and
the inquisitive mate so reported to me. Boxes
of cartridges are heavy things, to say nothing
of field-guns, and, fearing that they would smash
out the side ports and go overboard, I sent the
mate and a gang of men below to secure them.
McCarthy came back with his eyes bulging out
like young pumpkins.
"The ship is full of arms and ammunition,"
he declared, with excitement and exaggeration.
3a               2]51




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


which I exchanged it was a burden for two able
seamen. In addition to this payment, and as a
reward for the service I had rendered them, the
rebels refunded the port charges, which amounted
to several hundred dollars. This money I
credited to the owners of the ship. The officers
expected that, as it amounted to a gratuity, it
would be divided among them; and when they
found they were to get none of it there were
many protests. McCarthy was the chief complainant. He contended that the money was a
gift to the officers and that, as the owners knew
nothing about it, we should divide it among
ourselves. I insisted that the fact that the
owners had no knowledge of the donation was
all the more reason why I should be honest with
them, and refused to listen to any argument on
the subject, whereat McCarthy showed much
annoyance.
Soon after our return to Savanilla it was announced that the captured comandante was
to be shot, and a regular field day of murder
was planned by the rebels. When I heard of
this I called on General Aizpuru and told him
that the United States government would hold
him personally responsible for the safety of the
comandante and his men, and that if any of
them were injured he would pay dearly for the
outrage. After much argument Aizpuru assured me that none of the prisoners would be
harmed, and they were not, though they were
[ 4 




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


pedition within the meaning of the law." This
doctrine, which has since been upheld by the
higher courts, was in line with my own theory,
and I was greatly pleased to hear it laid down
as the law, for I expected to profit by it in future
operations.
After my dismissal Mr. Root said I was the
"dumbest witness he had ever seen on the
stand." No doubt he spoke truly, for, while I
answered every question that was put to me, I
volunteered no explanations; it was no part of
my business to tell all I knew if the prosecuting
attorney could not drag it out of me with his
interrogations. My acquittal was followed by
the release of the Mexico, which had been seized
by the Federal authorities when I was indicted.
She was chartered to carry fruit from Cuba to
New York, but it seemed that she could not be
operated profitably without violating the law,
and after a few trips she was again laid up in
Erie Basin, to await further filibustering activity.
In 1887, Marco Aurelio Soto, ex-president of
Honduras, who was living in handsome style on
Fifth Avenue near Sixty-third Street, secretly
started a movement to regain the presidency
by the always popular means of a revolution.
Like all former rulers of South and Central
American countries, he was possessed of a large
"war chest," so there was no lack of funds.
After assuring himself of some support and sending word to his friends to prepare for trouble,
[86]




TWO REVOLUTIONS


he bought the City of Mexico from Lord & Austin,
through his agent, A. D. Straus, of 15 Broadway,
with the intention of using her to carry the weapons with which he expected to wage his little
war. On account of the notoriety which I had
unwillingly acquired in the Colombian affair,
a new captain, who could never have been suspected of cherishing filibustering inclinations,
was placed in command of the ship; but I was
engaged at the same time and held in reserve.
The first thing the new captain did was to get
caught as he was trying to take on a cargo of
arms and ammunition from a lighter in Erie
Basin as I had done two years before. His detection confirmed the suspicion that steps were
being taken toward a disturbance of the peace
in Honduras, and the vigilance of the customs
officers was increased.
The Mexico, apparently reformed and returned
to inoffensive navigation, then shipped a general
cargo for Progreso, Mexico, and the arms were
openly sent to Kingston, Jamaica, on an Atlas
liner. It was intended that after the Mexico
had delivered her cargo she would go to Jamaica
and get the arms and take them to Honduras;
but this plan was arranged in ignorance of the
English law. Any one can ship all of the arms
he wants to into British territory, but no one
can get them out again unless it is clear that
they are going to some recognized government.
Consequently, when the Mexico called at King[371




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


ston for the arms, she found them under guard.
After some delay they were shipped back to
New York on a regular liner as the only way
out of the muddle.
Customs officers and detectives employed by
the government of Honduras were watching for
them on their arrival, with instructions never to
let them get out of their sight. The arms and
ammunition were piled up on the dock and then
transferred to a steam-lighter of the Shortland
Company, which had orders to take them to the
Erie Basin, where they were to be locked up in
a warehouse and placed under a permanent
guard. The men who were handling the heavy
cargo were so intentionally slow in getting it
aboard the lighter that it was late in the evening before the work was finished. The detectives and customs men, more anxious to get home
than to earn their pay, asked the captain of the
lighter when he would go over to Erie Basin.
He told them he would not move until morning,
and, with the promise that he would find them
waiting for him at the warehouse, they all went
away. There were enough of them so that they
could have afforded to leave a couple of men on
guard, as a wise precaution, but it did not occur
to them that they might be overlooking something.
In the mean time, the Fram, a Norwegian fruit
steamer which was laid up at Boston, had been
chartered by Lord & Austin, at the instance of
Marco Aurelio, and I had been called on to take
[88]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


When the Fram's supplementary clearance
was filed at the Custom-House five days later,
which was the limit of time the law allowed,
it revealed our cargo and destination, but it was
then too late to head'us off; fortunately there
was no wireless telegraph in those days. We
stopped at Turk's Island to pick up a gang of
filibusters who had been engaged in New York
and sent there on a Clyde liner. Many of
them backed out at the last minute, but we took
on board fifty as tough characters as one could
wish to see. They had all been promised plantations if the revolution succeeded, and were ready
for any kind of a fight. Of a higher type were
three Cuban generals, veterans of the Ten Years'
War, who had grown so accustomed to fighting
that they could do nothing else. They had been
engaged by Marco Aurelio to command divisions
of his army. Though we did not land them,
they subsequently reached Honduras from Halifax by way of the West Indies, and two of them
were killed there. Gen. Antonio Maceo, the
third one, escaped and lived long enough to do
more hard fighting than any other commander
in Cuba's final revolt against Spain, in which he
was killed shortly before it succeeded.
From Turk's Island we sailed for Great Corn
Island, at the westerly end of the Caribbean Sea.
It had been arranged that we would meet the
Mexico there or at Bluefields, Nicaragua, and
put our cargo aboard of her. I was then to take
[40]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
wish to go to the trouble of changing his plans.
Furthermore, as I have observed, naval officers
have considerable sympathy for filibusters, as
a general proposition, and seldom go beyond the
strict letter of their orders in seeking to apprehend them.
There was no sign of the Mexico at either
Great Corn Island or Bluefields, but the captain
of an American schooner, which we met coming
up the coast, volunteered the information that
he had seen her the week before at St. Andrew's
Island. With a good idea as to what had happened, but to make sure and take no chance of
missing the other ship if she had avoided capture, I returned to St. Andrew. We approached
it carefully late in the afternoon so that if we
were observed and pursued by some watching
war-ship we could escape in the darkness. The
coast was clear, so we went on in and anchored
just outside of the harbor. The energetic Mr.
Carnes came off to meet us, and urged me so insistently to come into the harbor and anchor
close to shore that he aroused my suspicions.
He gave me to understand that the Mexico had
been there, but would tell me nothing about her.
I went ashore to investigate, and soon had the
whole story from a stranded American skipper
who had lost his ship. From this it appeared
that, not content with having brought about
the seizure of the Mexico, Mr. Carnes had turned
in a general alarm. In response to a message
[42]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
Mr. Carnes got word in advance of the governor's action and promptly took to the bush.
I could not take time to follow him, but I left
word at his office that the next time we met
I would kill him for lying to me and trying to
trap me under the guise of a courtesy. When
this promise was made, I fully intended to keep
it; but the next time I saw Carnes he was so
nearly dead that I let him go, never suspecting
that he would recover and become a spy at my
heels in the Cuban revolution.
My orders were, if anything happened to the
Mexico, to go to Kingston and turn the cargo
over to the agents for the Atlas Line, and this
I proceeded to do. Two hours after we reached
Jamaica an English war-ship came in and, plainly
under orders, anchored close alongside of us. On
account of their previous experience with our
unlucky cargo the Atlas Line agents refused to
have anything to do with it, but I finally found
an Englishman who allowed me to store it in
his warehouse. I thought they would let us go
thien, but, instead, the governor sent a file of
soldiers aboard the Fram. They disconnected
our machinery and kept us prisoners for a week.
We would have been held there much longer,
and might have been turned over to the Honduran government to furnish targets for some
of their bad marksmen, but for a desperate bluff
which I ran on the captain of the port. I told
him we had violated no law by bringing arms
[44]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
home, and I returned to New York on the
Miranda. I found that the Mexico had been
condemned as a filibuster and sold, and the
government was willing to let it go at that.
However, when the captain of the Fram returned
to Norway, his license was taken away from him
for his part in the affair; the Norwegians are
more strict about such matters than we are.
With the petering-out of the revolution General Soto took up his residence in Paris, where he
died not long afterward, possibly from disappointment, while I found something still more exciting
to which I turned my willing hands.




III


"DYNAMITE JOHNNY"
NOT long after the failure of Marco Aurelio
Soto's revolt in Honduras I engaged in the
undertaking that gave me the sobriquet by which
I have ever since been known. A Cuban, supposedly wealthy and also suspected by some generally wise but always nervous people of being an
able worker in some new revolutionary plot, who
had a coal concession on the Isthmus of Panama,
then a part of Colombia, came to New York with
an order for sixty tons of dynamite. In those
days dynamite was not such a common commodity as it is now, and it was held in sincere
respect both afloat and ashore, for the process of
its manufacture had not reached the point where
it could be knocked around and otherwise insulted without running more risks than most
men cared to take. Sixty tons of it sounded like
enough to blow the whole of Colombia off the
map with one explosion. Even if a ship-owner
could have been found who was willing to carry
such a large quantity of it, he would have demanded a prohibitive price, so the careful Cuban
bought the Rambler, the largest schooner in the
[471




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


New York Yacht Club and owned by Commodore Thomas. The waist of the handsome
craft was ruthlessly torn out to make a storage
place for the dynamite. The explosive was in
sticks, an inch or more in diameter and a foot
long, and was packed in sawdust in fifty-pound
boxes.
When the Rambler was ready to receive her
cargo her new owner went in search of a captain;
but he could find no one who wanted the job or
who could be induced to take it, even though he
offered double the ordinary pay and a large
bonus-which latter was to be paid on the delivery of the dynamite. I was then back at
my old occupation of piloting ships through Hell
Gate, but the Cuban heard of me in some way
and came after me. It did not require much
persuasion to induce me to take command of
the expedition. There was quite enough danger
about it to make it attractive, and, being of
Irish parentage, I was favorably disposed toward
dynamite on general principles. The size of the
shipment was not appalling, for, except as to
the number of fragments of disintegrated humanity which would suddenly be scattered over
the broad sea in the event of an explosion, I
could see no difference between sixty tons and
only six; the ship, though old, was still a stanch
craft, and I felt sure that if I kept my mind on
navigation rather than on her cargo we would
find our lives in our vest pockets and undamaged
[481




"DYNAMITE JOHNNY"


when we reached Colon. So I cheerfully signed
the papers.
The cargo was taken aboard while the schooner
was lying at anchor off the Statue of Liberty.
When it came to shipping a crew, I was forced
to do some lying, which I regretted, but there
seemed to be no other way out of it. If I had
let the truth be known I couldn't have secured
a crew on any terms, so I told the men that the
Rambler was a private yacht going down to Colon
to meet her owner, and that the improvised hold,
in which the dynamite was stored, was filled with
stores, as it was intended to start out at once
on a long cruise. In a sense this was at least
partly true, for the Cuban coal-dealer returned
to Colon by steamer. He earnestly explained
that this was not due to anything of fear as to
the safety of the schooner, but because he wished
to get there ahead of us to make some arrangements. My optimistic friends insisted on bidding me farewell, for they assured me I would
never see them again, but that worried me not
at all. We left New York early in the summer
ef 1888, and had good weather all of the way
down the coast; but in the Gulf of Mexico we
ran into as severe a tropical storm as I have ever
seen. For two days we had a howling northeaster, which kicked up a savage sea, but we
ran before it under shortened sail, and I felt
no great anxiety.
At sunset on the second day the wind fell
[491




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


away to a dead calm, and in half an hour we
were in the center of a terrific electrical storm,
while the rain fell in solid sheets. There was
nothing to do but take in every stitch of canvas,
to prevent the ship from threshing it and herself to pieces, and let her wallow in it. Never
have I seen such a brilliant display of electricity,
nor one that lasted so long. From sundown to
sunrise the sky was literally ablaze with dazzling
streaks of fire; it was a marvelous exhibition of
the heavens in a fury. To the innocent mates
and crew it was awe-inspiring-it was strange
to see a ship's company silent in the face of
frenzied elements instead of cursing them-but
to me it came close to being terrifying. The
falling rain picked up the electricity and carried
it down until the air we breathed was filled with
it. When I ran my hand through my hair it
snapped and crackled like a hickory fire, and
every time I touched a piece of metal I felt a
slight shock. There seemed to be enough of
the mysterious current running through the ship
to set her on fire, and when, now and then, the
rain ceased for a moment and one of the men
struck a match in a futile effort to light his
pipe, I imagined the expected blaze had started.
Though it was doubtful if our small boats
could have lived long in the sea that was running, I would have been tempted to abandon the
ship but for my disinclination to frighten the
crew. It was of them I thought rather than
[50]




"DYNAMITE JOHNNY"


myself, for I was not pleased with the possibility of causing the annihilation of men whom I
had signed on under false pretenses, even though
I met death with them. The lightning fairly
played around our mastheads, and I knew if it
struck us it would run down into the hold and
set off the dynamite, and we would be blown to
the four winds with never a chance for our lives.
The long arms of fire flashed down at us viciously,
as though anxious to destroy us; they came at
us as if they were aimed by old Jupiter himself
with wholesale murder in his heart. Perhaps
we were not struck because we were on our beamends more often than on an even keel. We
rolled and pitched around so that I expected
to see the masts go by the board at any minute;
and I almost hoped they would, for it would
have greatly lessened the danger.
Next to the fiery fusilade the thing which gave
me the most concern was the possibility that
some of the boxes would get adrift and the
dynamite be exploded either by concussion or
friction. We had been under a blazing sun for
more than a week, and I knew that in very
warm weather nitroglycerin melts and runs
together in the composition with which it is
mixed into sticks, in which condition it is liable
to be exploded by a slight jar. I had personally
directed the stowing of the cargo, and it was well
done, but it appeared that nothing could long
remain secure in such a buffeting as we were
[51]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


getting. My anxiety on this point became so
keen that along toward the middle of the night
I went down into the hold to investigate. I
could not send any of the crew, for "DYNAMITE" was stamped in large letters on every
box, and at sight of that all of them would have
been over the side as quickly as they could lower
a boat. I did not wish to see them go to almost
certain death in the raging sea, nor was I anxious
to be left to navigate the ship alone.
It turned out that I was none too soon with
my inquiry, for some of the boxes were just
beginning to work loose and rub against each
other. It was no easy task to secure them,
single-handed and with the ship constantly trying to turn turtle, but with the aid of fenders
and strips of canvas I finally made everything
fast again, so that I had no further uneasiness
on that score. That was, I think, as ticklish
a position as I have ever been in-with boxes of
dynamite under and around me and the ship's
timbers screaming and groaning like ten thousand devils just out of hell; crashing thunder,
blazing lightning, and a deluge of water above,
and outside a mighty sea that was tossing the
vessel around like a washtub. It was not a
situation in which one was in any danger of falling asleep.
With the coming of the sun the lightning,
thunder, and rain ceased as suddenly as they had
opened hostilities; the sky cleared until soon
[52]




"DYNAMITE JOHNNY"


there was not a cloud in sight and the tradewind breezed up over our quarter. That is a
way the enlivening elements have in the tropics.
We reached Colon in twelve and a half days
from New York, including the night we were
hove to in the storm, and another one when
we went to the other extreme and were becalmed, which was tramp-steamship time.
When the crew saw the hundreds of boxes of
dynamite coming out of the hold, some of them
probably would have tried to murder me if
they had not found themselves suffering considerably from heart failure. Their evident
terror, when there was no further cause for alarm,
was calculated to provoke mirth; but I did not
laugh much, for my conscience was troubling
me, and I was not at all comfortable under the
reproachful and accusing glances that were being
leveled at me. For the first time in my life I
had deliberately lied, and the realization of that
fact produced a new and decidedly unpleasant
sensation. If we had been blown up I would
have been as much responsible for the death of
every man on the ship as though I had murdered them. I offered no explanations or
apologies, but, as I watched our deadly cargo
going ashore, I determined that there would be
no more entries of that kind on my log-book.
I was born with hatred for a liar, and never since
then have I told an untruth that could possibly
hurt any one. When it has been a case of tell[53]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


ing damaging truths or lying viciously, I have
kept my lips closed; what you don't say can't
come back to accuse you.
With our cargo discharged, the Rambler carried
a few cargoes of ice from Jamaica to the Isthmus,
apparently to give her a reputation for respectability, and was then ordered to Boca del Toro,
two hundred miles west of Colon, where I turned
her over to a ship-keeper. Not long afterward
she went into the smuggling business, in which
trade I had refused to accompany her, and after
a short career she was seized by the Colombian
government and blown up, off the Pacific Mail
dock at Boca del Toro, as the surest means of
ending her activity in that direction.
While I was waiting at Boca del Toro for a
ship to take me back to Colon, I was greatly
surprised to meet my old friend Brooks Carnes,
the American consular agent who had tried to
cause my capture at St. Andrew's Island a year
before, when I was attempting to deliver a cargo
of arms to the revolutionists in Honduras, and
whom I had promised to kill the next time I
saw him. He had been promoted in the mean
time and made consul at Colon, probably as a
reward for his activity in capturing the Mexico
and his earnest effort to trap me. When I saw
him he had been out in the mountains with a
surveying party of some kind. The trip must
have been a hard one, for he was a physical
wreck when he came into town. He ran right
[54]




"DYNAMITE JOHNNY"


into me on the street before he recognized me.
Then he began to beg for his life, and he was
such a picture of misery that I let him go. He
looked as though he could not live a week, but
he recovered.
Subsequently he became a spy for the Spanish
government, and eight years later, when I was
smuggling arms into Cuba, he brazenly wrote
me a letter requesting me to meet him. Between
the lines it was plainly a proposal to bribe me
to betray my friends, so I ignored it, as I did
several other communications of a similar character, one of which, involving a specific offer of
a small fortune, came from an accredited diplomatic representative of Spain. Some months
after the receipt of this letter from Carnes he
died in Jacksonville, where he was one of a number of spies who were trying to keep track of
my movements. There were plenty of Cuban
enthusiasts who would have considered it both
a duty and an honor to kill him if they had known
of his proposal to me; but they did not know,
and he died from natural causes, which, after
all, was the better way.
On my return to Colon I caught the Chagres
fever and nearly died from it before I could get
back to New York. When I reappeared at the
headquarters of the pilots and along the waterfront, my old friends began to hail me as "Dynamite Johnny," and the name stuck; it did not
come, as has often been stated, from carrying
[551




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


dynamite to the Cubans, years later. After I
had fully recovered from the fever I rejoined
the Hell Gate pilots and followed my old calling
until the spring of 1889, when I took command
of the steamship Caroline Miller and began
carrying arms to Haiti, where General Florville
Hippolyte used them with good effect against
his old enemy, General F. D. Legitime. Hippolyte and Legitime had been plotting for the
presidency throughout the latter years of General Salomon's term in the executive "mansion,"
and had divided the country into two rival
camps. They rose in revolt about the same
time, and in December, 1888, at Port au Prince,
Legitime had himself elected president by the
Departments of the South and West. Hippolyte,
who was supported by the Departments of the
North and Northwest, promptly organized a provisional government at Cape Haitien, and the
two rivals settled down to fight it out.
Hippolyte shrewdly secured the "moral support" of the United States government by
promising that when he became undisputed
president he would cede to it a coaling-station
at M61e Saint Nicholas, made famous during the
Spanish-American War as the place off which
heavy firing was heard every day, according
to the abnormally attuned ears of the very
capable correspondents for the New York newspapers. This country's active sympathy with
Hippolyte made it such a simple matter to get
[56]




"DYNAMITE JOHNNY"


away with our cargoes that there was no attempt
at secrecy in our clearances. For the same reason the expeditions were not attended by any
great amount of danger, but the absence of
excitement was in some degree compensated for
by my interest in observing the manner in which
the Washington government exerted its friendly
influence. It was a novel experience to feel
that I had the American navy at my back instead of at my throat, as it had always been
before and was again a few years later.
The Caroline Miller was owned by the McCaldin Brothers, of New York, and was no new
hand at carrying munitions of war to Haiti.
For six months before I took command of her
she had been under charter to Jiminez Husted,
the Haitien consul at New York, who was a
member of the Hippolyte faction, and had been
carrying arms to that party. Husted wished
to renew the charter; but the McCaldins concluded they could make more money by running
her themselves, so they turned her over to me.
Frank Elliott, a ship-broker on South Street, was
the agent ior our cargoes, which, to avoid open
conflict with the customs regulations, were consigned to Theodore Kayner, at Port de Paix;
to a German named Gustavus at Cape Haitien;
to an American of the name of Orr at Gonaives;
and to another American at Saint Marc, all of
whom were agents for the provisional government.
Though the Miller registered only nine hun5               [57]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


dred tons net, we carried twelve hundred tons
on our first trip. Our scuppers were awash
when we left New York, early in the summer of
1889, and the Plimsoll mark was on our smokestack. We were so heavily overloaded that it
was out of the question to insure either ship or cargo, but that caused no concern. Among the supplies on board were ten thousand rifles, tons of
ammunition, and a great lot of stores, fresh beef,
and ice. We stopped at Great Inagua Island
to pick up a crew of natives to handle the cargo,
as I feared the Haitiens were so filled with the
martial spirit that they would refuse to do any
ordinary work.
Twenty-five miles off Cape Haitien we found
Commodore Bancroft Gherardi, of the United
States navy, waiting for us on his flag-ship, the
famous old Kearsarge. He had been sent to
Haitien waters to give Hippolyte his "moral
support," and, having been advised of our
coming, had put out to watch for us and convoy
us into port. His instructions were not to fire
a shot in our defense; but in the event that we
were attacked by one of Legitime's gunboats he
was expected to put himself between us, so that
a shot fired at the Miller would have to pass
through the Kearsarge before it reached my ship.
Legitime understood the situation, and the commanders of his war-ships had been warned that
in firing on the Miller they must be careful not
to hit the Kearsarge, which latter eventuality
[58]




"DYNAMITE JOHNNY"


would promptly have been regarded as an act of
war against the United States. This sort of
international courtesy was a new thing to me,
and I am bound to say it did not provoke any
great amount of admiration for the diplomacy
of James G. Blaine. If the administration
at Washington wished to ally itself with Hippolyte, it should have done so openly instead of
covertly, it seemed to me.
But I knew my game, and was there to play it
without assuming any diplomatic responsibilities. We stopped close alongside the Kearsarge,
and after sending a lot of ice and fresh meat to
the war-ship, I called on Commodore Gherardi to
pay my respects and get the lay of the land.
After he had confirmed my understanding of his
purpose in those waters it was arranged that in
going from port to port he would keep a short
distance ahead of the Miller, and we would
steam at only three-quarter speed so that in
case we were attacked we could crowd on full
steam and get under the lee of the Kearsarge with
little loss of time. The clever old commodore,
though possessing all of the dignity called for
by his rank, was not so serious-minded that it
worried him any, and the humor of the situation
appealed to him as strongly as it did to me.
"It's funny," he said, "that after doing its
durnedest to capture you when you were trying
to help out the rebellious Honduranians, the
American navy should now be giving you. its
[59]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


earnest support in violating the same law against
filibustering. But, if we've got to aid some
trangressor of the strict letter of international
law, I'm glad it's a man who has had experience
and knows how to do it."
This frank expression of sympathy did much
to establish cordial relations, and, with the conditions of our conspiracy well understood, the
Kearsarge led the way into Cape Haitien. The
arms which were to be left there were quietly
unloaded at night, to escape the vigilance of
Legitime's spies, and in exchange for them we
took on a lot of coffee. We also shipped eight
hundred soldiers for the next stop, which was
Port de Paix. We arrived there without incident, and unloaded the troops and more arms,
and took on another consignment of coffee and
five hundred new soldiers for Gonaives.
We left Port de Paix in the evening, and late in
the night, off the famed and fabled Mole Saint
Nicholas, we ran right into two of Legitime's
gunboats-the Dessalines and an old Mallory
liner that had been converted into a war-ship,
so called. They were exchanging signals when
we made them out. They had seen the Kearsarge go by and knew we were not far behind.
Our lights were all doused, of course, and we
were hugging the shore so closely-most of the
time a biscuit could have been tossed ashore
from our pilot-house-that I hardly expected
they would see us; but, through some streak of
[601




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


island of Haiti coming up under steam. We
had been away just a month, and the trip netted
the McCaldins exactly $21,000, so they were
well satisfied with the results. I made three
more trips of the same kind, and equally profitable to the owners of the ship, before Hippolyte,
with the aid of the arms we delivered to him,
gained complete control of the country.
On each trip we carried ice and fresh meat for
Commodore Gherardi, who continued to serve
as our protector and guide. We caught him
napping once when we reached Cape Haitien,
to find that he had gone to Nassau for coal.
He had not expected us back so soon, and, not
wishing to delay matters, I went on without
him. My previous experience with Legitime's
war-ships had bred contempt for their gunnery,
and had also shown that we could outrun them;
so I did not consider that we were taking any
great risk in making the circuit alone. We made
Port de Paix without any trouble, but on the
way to Gonaives we encountered the Dessalines,
in broad daylight, near where she had used us
as a target two months before. She was standing close inshore, to head us off, and as soon
as I was sure she had made us out I bore off
toward the open sea to try out her speed.
Our courses converged, as I was trying to cross
her bow, and she let go at us when we were about
half a mile away. Her first shot went wild, but
to my surprise the second one went through our
[62]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


din and myself, and as soon as we could get
into our shore clothes the ceremony was performed, for it never would have done to show
any lack of respect for the man whose business
was so profitable to the owners of the ship.
Hippolyte received us with imposing honors in
a large room in a big building which was called
a palace only because he occupied it. His suite
was composed of twenty-five women of all colors
and all equally ugly to American eyes, but
clearly they were all beautiful to him. That he
much preferred their society to that of his own
sex was suggested by the fact that he was the
only man in sight until we arrived.
Hippolyte was enthroned on a platform at
one end of the long room, and it was there he
welcomed us with a dignity that would have
been painful if it had not been amusing. He
was as black as damnation, short, fat, and with
the eyes of a fox. On his looks I sized him up
as much more of a scoundrel than a statesman.
But there was no doubt he was brave, as that
quality is reckoned in that part of the world,
and he had the blacks at his back, which gave
him a majority of the population. Legitime,
on the other hand, was "yellow," and was hated
by the full-blooded negroes because of his fraction of white blood, which carried with it a more
progressive spirit.
Haiti was then, and still is, in an almost
constant state of warfare between the blacks and
[641




"DYNAMITE JOHNNY"


the yellows. The negroes are firm believers in
voodoo, and in those days, at least, they were
insanely devout in their cannibalistic worship
of "the goat without horns," as the children
sacrificed to their unholy rites were known. I
have no personal knowledge of the extent to
which human sacrifice is practised in Haiti today, but I am convinced that there is much
more of it than is generally believed. Haiti is
Haiti, and it is impossible that conditions there
can be much improved over what they were
twenty-or fifty-years ago until the United
States takes a larger hand in its affairs. Haitien
children are still reared in the belief that if a
white man ever owns a foot of ground in their
country they will all become slaves again.
After the inky general had sufficiently impressed us with his importance he relaxed a little and invited us to be seated beside him. His
idolizing females grouped themselves around us
so closely that, as we carried no axes, we would
have had trouble in getting out in a hurry.
Hippolyte congratulated me on the prompt and
safe delivery of all of the cargoes of arms, and
said they had been of so much assistance that
the opposition to his rule was on the point of
collapse. He grandly promised to make me independently wealthy as soon as Legitime was
disposed of, but, as I knew he did not mean what
he said, it made no difference that he neglected
to keep his word. He told us all about the
[65]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


progress of the war and asked many questions
about the United States, which he spoke of as
"a kindred nation." He referred to Benjamin
Harrison as a "brother President," whose friendly influence he seemed greatly to appreciate, and
expressed high praise for Secretary Blaine. His
egotism was amazing, but we indicated no surprise at his vagaries, to which the thinly skirted
members of his entourage murmured their adoration and approval. On the contrary, we entered
into the spirit of the joke, as it was to us, and
gorged him with the kind of talk he loved to
hear, so that we became great friends before the
meeting was over.
This reception, which we were told was an
unusual honor, was but the first of a series of
diverting festivities. The next morning we were
advised that Hippolyte would return our call at
noon and lunch with us on the ship. It was
diplomatically suggested that we invite Commodore Gherardi, and he accepted without
hesitation. Our breakfast, as the noonday meal
is called in the West Indies, was what the society
reporters would call a great success. In advance
of it we were somewhat nervous through apprehension that Hippolyte might bring along a lot
of his women, but he left them all at home, apparently appreciating that we did not have room
enough to entertain a large gathering. Captain
McCaldin toasted Hippolyte and Commodore
Gherardi. In his response Hippolyte served
[6ts]




"DYNAMITE JOHNNY"


me with a fine assortment of honeyed words,
which meant nothing except as they illustrated
his highfalutin style and native insincerity.
"Captain O'Brien's nerve and daring," he
said, "command our highest admiration and
are worthy of our most sublime ideals. When
this war is over, as it soon will be, I hope to see
him admiral of the Haitien navy. That position will be offered to him, and I sincerely hope
he will accept it."
Commodore Gherardi spoke briefly and diplomatically, but he made no secret of the fact that
the United States government was convinced
that the best interests of Haiti demanded the
recognition of General Hippolyte, and expressed
the hope that there soon would be none to dispute his title to the presidency.
The next evening Hippolyte entertained us at
the palace. It was a debauch rather than a
dinner. The one thing about the feast that
remains strong in my mind is that I never had
seen so much wine at one time, and I wondered
where it came from and who paid for it. They
had it, not only by the case, but by the wagonload, and there was an able-bodied corps of waiters
to see that every guest's glass was full all of the
time. Several of Hippolyte's staff-officers were
present, along with all of the women we had
seen before and many more of the same kind.
The whole scene was suggestive only of the
Orient. I remember that Hippolyte and Cap[871




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


tain McCaldin plenteously pledged the undying
love of the United States and Haiti, but the
phrases that were used I do not recall, though
they were sufficiently impassioned and grandiloquent to fit the occasion. They told me later
that I also made an eloquent speech; but, if I
did, it was the only one I have ever delivered,
and I have no recollection of it. Hippolyte, with
his arms around our necks, urged Captain McCaldin and me to spend the rest of the night at the
palace; but, having still some respect for our
reputations, we concluded it was the part of
wisdom to return to the ship, which we did with
some difficulty. In parting with us Hippolyte
again assured me that he would make me a
millionaire and admiral of his navy as soon as
the cruel war was over.
On the following night our American agent
gave a dinner, to round out the exchange of
compliments, but, in comparison with the one
that had gone before, it must be admitted that
it was rather a sad affair. All of us, with the
exception of Hippolyte, on whom wine seemed
to have no effect, were suffering from the night
before, and, while our mutual faith was sworn
to in the time-honored way, the ceremony was
somewhat lacking in spontaneity, in the early
hours at least. However, there was a free expression of the sentiment that we were all
brothers, "fighting in a common cause and for
the uplift of humanity," in whose name many
[68]




IV


THE CALL OF CUBA LIBRE
PERHAPS it was decreed by fate that I should
become a filibuster in the cause of Cuban
liberty; at any rate, the summons came, and
was responded to, in the way that distinguishes
things which are foreordained. I was unexpectedly projected into the situation when it
was filled with disaster and discouragement and
the future of the "Pearl of the Antilles" seemed
darker than it had been in any of the black
days that had gone before.
Cuba owes her freedom more to Jos6 Marti
than to any other man, for it was his noble
brain that conceived and planned the War of
Independence. After he had given his life for
his country, it was the organization he had built
up in years of labor that furnished the means
with which to carry on the conflict. There
have been no more men like Marti than there
have been others like George Washington or
Abraham Lincoln; and, in justice to his memory
and to make the whole matter plain, his work
should be understood. Driven from his island.
home at the end of the Ten Years' War, he took
[70]




THE CALL OF CUBA LIBRE


refuge in New York and immediately began to
plan and work out a movement that would forever blot out from the New World the tyrannical
misrule of his old enemies. His chief adviser,
and one of the very few who possessed his full
confidence during the long years of his unselfish
labor, was his old friend Horatio S. Rubens, who
subsequently became general counsel for the
revolutionists.
Marti's indomitable spirit took no notice of
things that would have disheartened any but
an extraordinary man. Though he lacked for
a time the support of even his own countrymen,
as a result of their successive reverses, he kept
at work until he had created a far-reaching and
exceedingly effective organization. Cuban clubs
were secretly established in New York, Chicago,
Charleston, New Orleans, Tampa, Jacksonville,
Key West, and every other city where there was a
Cuban colony. The members of these clubs, which
were chiefly composed of cigar-makers, regularly
contributed ten per cent. of their wages to the
revolutionary fund. With the money thus provided Marti bought arms and ammunition,
which were smuggled into Cuba in small quantities and hidden away until he was ready to
strike, and perfected his plans in other ways.
Though filled with the fire and fervor of the inspired patriot, he was in no way impatient; so
long as he was making progress he was satisfied,
and he worked slowly and systematically.
[711




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


Finally all was in readiness, and arrangements
were made for the launching of the revolution
in January, 1895, when three vessels, which had
been chartered for the expedition, loaded with
arms, were to sail from Fernandina, Florida.
One was to go to Santo Domingo and pick up
General Maximo Gomez, the commander-inchief, and his staff, while another went to Costa 
Rica for Lieutenant-General Antonio Maceo,
who was to be second in command, and his party.
The third ship, with Marti on board, was to
proceed to Key West, where it was to be joined
by a large party of Cuban exiles. The three
vessels were to make a landing simultaneously
at the eastern end of the island, where the arms
were concealed.
Marti had moved so secretly that he supposed
no one outside of his organization had an inkling of his plans, but there was a leak somewhere, through which the project became known
at Washington. When the first ship put out
from Fernandina it was seized by a revenue
cutter and the other vessels were prevented from
sailing. Undaunted by this disaster, Marti went
to Santo Domingo on a regular liner and persuaded Gomez to go ahead with the plan. Maceo
was summoned from Costa Rica, and the delayed expedition, much smaller in numbers than
it was intended to be but with no less courage,
landed from a little fishing-sloop near the city
of Santiago, close to the point at which the first
[72]




THE CALL OF CUBA LIBRE


large body of American troops were landed three
years later to complete the conquest of Spain
in Cuba.
The rebellious natives were anxiously awaiting
the call to arms, and the revolutionary forces were
quickly organized, first in Santiago province
and then in Camaguey and Santa Clara. Marti
lived long enough to see the movement he had
inaugurated well under way, but it was the greatest tragedy of the war that he did not survive
to witness the realization of his life's one dream.
Knowing nothing of fear and disdainful of caution, he constantly exposed himself to danger,
in spite of all that Gomez and his officers could
do to restrain him. While far in advance of the
main body of troops he was killed by a small
force of Spaniards at Dos Rios, in Santiago
province, on May 15, 1895. As in the case of
Maceo, who was killed near Havana eighteen
months later, his death was almost accidental,
and it was some time before the Spaniards discovered the rank and importance of their victim.
Then they counted themselves heroes, and were
so proclaimed in Havana.
The death of Marti depressed the spirits of
the revolutionists for a time almost to the point
of complete discouragement. The field leaders
were ready enough to continue the fight, regardless of the Spanish odds against them, but they
realized that without active support in the United
States they could not hope to keep up an effective
6               [731




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


warfare for want of arms and other supplies.
They looked to Rubens, who was a native NewYorker, to find some one to take charge of the
organization which Marti had created, and, in
casting about for a suitable man for the place,
he hit on Tomas Estrada Palma, who was then
conducting a school for boys at Central Valley,
New York. Like Marti and many others, he had
left Cuba at the end of the Ten Years' War,
and his large estates had been confiscated. The
Spaniards offered to restore them if he would
return and take the oath of allegiance, but he
swore he would never set foot on the island again
until it was free. Palma was at first reluctant
to take any part in the revolution, which he considered hopeless, but two months after Marti's
death he yielded to the arguments of Rubens,
and was appointed Cuban delegate at New York.
Strictly speaking, there was no Junta in this
country during the wa:; there were delegates in
all of the cities where there was a considerable
Cuban population. Those who were most active
were Mr. Palma and J. A. Huau, of Jacksonville.
They worked together harmoniously throughout
the war, but afterward became enemies. Mr.
Palma contributed very little of his own means
to the revolution, and was made the first President of Cuba; Mr. Huau sacrificed his whole
fortune, and went without reward of any kind.
There were many offices to which he might
have been appointed, in slight recognition of
[741




THE CALL OF CUBA LIBRE


his invaluable services, and any one of which
he would have filled with credit, but none
was offered him. In explanation of his failure
to reward Mr. Huau it has been stated, and with
some truth, that when Mr. Palma was elected
President he had been so long away from Cuba
that he did not know his own people; he felt
that to make his administration a success he
must have men around him whom he could trust
absolutely, so he distributed the best positions
among his relatives. The fact remains, however, that his ingratitude toward Mr. Huau,
as it was so regarded, was one of the things which
eventually deprived him of the sympathy and
support of a majority of the Cubans.
Because of his standing and his location, and
for the further reason that all of the finances
were handled through the New York office, Mr.
Palma was recognized as the chief American
representative of the revolutionists. He lacked
much of the force and initiative of Marti, but
he had many influential friends in this country,
and it was considered that his personal popularity would prove of much advantage to the
cause. His own countrymen regarded him as
more of an American than a Cuban on account
of his long residence here, but they believed he
would be more useful for that reason. His devotion to Cuba was unquestioned, and he was as
rigidly honest as Marti, though not of such a
self-sacrificing nature.
[75]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


The discovery of Marti's expedition, which
indicated considerable backing and suggested a
far-reaching organization, put the Spaniards on
their guard. Representations made to President Cleveland and Secretary of State Olney by
Dupuy de Lome, the Spanish Minister at Washington, resulted in orders to the Revenue Cutter
Service and to all customs officers to exert them- 
selves to the utmost to prevent filibustering expeditions from leaving this country for Cuba. In
his efforts to make it impossible for aid to reach
the Cubans, De Lome engaged the Pinkerton
Detective Agency, and also employed an army
of spies, who worked independently of each
other, to watch every one suspected of connection with the revolutionary movement.
The Pinkertons did legitimate detective work,
but the Spanish spies were always ready and
anxious to use foul means when they failed to
accomplish their ends through the shrewdness
they were supposed to possess; they did not
hesitate even when it came to arranging for
wholesale murder. They bribed men right and
left to give them information and commercialized assassination by employing traitors to sink
vessels carrying arms to Cuba, in the hope of
terrorizing ship-owners and filibusters. With
the advance information they had purchased
concerning the expeditions that were thus lost
at sea, the Spaniards could easily have prevented
their departure, or had them overhauled by a
[76]




THE CALL OF CUBA LIBRE


revenue cutter after they had sailed, but they
believed it would produce a more deterrent influence to have them mysteriously disappear
well off shore, without any regard to the loss of
life that was certain to ensue. It was, of course,
expected that the traitor who sank the ship
would take proper precautions to see that he
was one of those who were saved, but, fortunately, in some instances their plans miscarried
and the murderers went down with their victims.
Another favorite method of the Spaniards was
to induce the captain of a ship that was taking
out an expedition to tell them, in return for a
large sum of money-$5,000 being the ordinary
price-where he was to land. When the filibusters and their arms had all been put ashore
they would find themselves surrounded by a
concealed force of waiting Spanish troops, and
in a few minutes they were massacred to a man,
for no prisoners were ever taken in such cases.
It seems incredible that captains could be found
who were vile enough to sell men's lives for a few
paltry dollars; to take patriots to what they knew
was certain death; to travel with them as shipmates for days and then put them ashore, knowing
they would be murdered in half an hour-but
there were a number who did it. Most of them
are now with the doubly damned, where they belong, and the few who are still alive probably
wish they were dead. Of course, these villainous captains suffered no injury; that was part
[77]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


of the agreement. If it was necessary for the
sake of appearance to seize the ship that landed
the filibusters, the vessel was invariably released
within a few days, and the captain was given
a bonus to compensate him for his polite detention.
In consequence of the activity of the horde of
spies and their willingness to hand out money
to any one who would betray a secret, there was
much treachery, though never among the Cubans
who had anything to do with the organization,
and for some months things went strongly against
Mr. Palma. Gomez and Maceo were calling for
arms and supplies with which to continue the
war, but none could be delivered to them.
Numerous expeditions were planned, but all of
them were either held up just as they were ready
to sail, or sunk at sea, or run into traps when they
reached Cuba, involving great and unnecessary
loss of life, heavy and useless drains on the revolutionary treasury, and bitter disappointments
to the rebels.
In January, 1896, the steam fisherman Hawkins, under Captain Hall, was sent away from
Montauk Point with a cargo of arms and a party
of Cubans who were going down to join Gomez.
Her sea-cocks were treacherously opened a few
hours after her departure, and she sank off the
south shore of Long Island, carrying down Jack
Lynch, the chief engineer, and ten men. The
man who was paid to sink the ship went down
[781




THE CALL OF CUBA LIBRE


with her, but I have always suspected that he
did not meet death by drowning. The cargo,
of course, was a total loss. About the same
time it was discovered that the captain of
the Commodore, which, after having been held
up for a long while at Charleston, was then lying
at Wilmington, had accepted $5,000 to reveal
to the Spaniards the landing-place of an expedition he was preparing to take out. On learning
this Horatio Rubens went to Wilmington, "borrowed" from the captain all he had left of the
bribe, which was $200-he had sent the balance
to a relative in Brooklyn-and kicked him off the
ship. The captain subsequently admitted that
he had received $5,000 from the Spaniards, but
claimed that he had intended to "double-cross"
them by telling them he was bound for some point
far away from his real destination. He was
drowned in the Gulf of St. Lawrence a few years
later, while bringing a ship around from the
Lakes to New York.
In the same ill-fated month of January a cargo
of arms was seized on the steamship Bermuda
while she was lying off Bedloe's Island in New
York harbor, just as she was about to sail for
Cuba with General Calixto Garcia, who was
known in the Ten Years' War as "The Terror,"
and several other prominent Cubans. There
was a Pinkerton man on the Bermuda, who sent
in reports of everything that happened, and it
was on information furnished by him that she
[ 79 1




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


was detained an hour before she was due to sail.
Her collection of hostile hardware was put ashore
under a guard and was not released until May,
1898; and, to prevent any possibility of the expedition getting away, the ship also was seized,
and deputy United States marshals were placed
in charge of her. She was subsequently released,
and before she finally sailed another cargo was
spirited aboard. It included 2,500 rifles, a
12-pounder Hotchkiss field-gun, 1,500 revolvers,
200 short carbines, 1,000 pounds of dynamite,
1,200 machetes, and an abundance of ammunition. All of the stuff was packed in boxes
marked "codfish" and "medicines."
General Garcia, who was one of the few men
who have ever escaped from the terrible Spanish
prison at Ceuta, Morocco, had made several
attempts to get to Cuba and take a hand in the
war, and this last disappointment completely
disheartened him, as it did most of the Cubans.
There was still more trouble in store for him, for
on March 13th, nearly two months after the seizure of the cargo, General Garcia, Benjamin J.
Guerra, treasurer of the New York revolutionary
delegation; Bernardo J. Bueno; John D. Hart,
owner of the Bermuda; Captain John Brabazon,
master of the ship; and Samuel Hughes, a navigator employed by the Cubans, were indicted
in the Federal Court for engaging to sail on a
filibustering trip to Cuba. They were arrested
at once and placed under bonds of $2,500 each.
[801




THE CALL OF CUBA LIBRE


This discouraging development so added to the
anxieties of the Cubans that it made them desperate.
The next day, March 14th, which was Saturday, Mr. Hart sent for me and asked me to take
command of the expedition. He explained the
situation in detail and did not attempt to conceal
its dangers as they appeared to him, though, having been in the same business before, I knew more
about that part of it than he did. He said the
Cubans were extremely depressed by the continued disasters which treachery had brought
upon them, and that unless this expedition could
be cleared and safely landed he feared they would
be forced to abandon their fight for liberty. He
paid me the compliment of expressing confidence
that I could perform the task. General Garcia,
he said, intended to jump his bail and go with
the ship, and he pointed out that the arrival of
the famous old fighter in Cuba, with a large cargo
of arms, would put new life into the revolution.
He offered me $500 for the trip; the depleted
treasury prevented him from paying more.
Financially, the proposition did not appeal to
me at all, but that was the least interesting feature of it. Any sort of a filibustering expedition
would have tempted me away from prosaic
piloting, provided it offered any reasonable
amount of adventure, but, above and beyond
my natural inclination in that direction, my
sympathies were strongly with the Cubans, and
[81 




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


I had more than once thought of offering them
my services. Here was a chance to be of real
service to them, at the time when they were
most in need of an honest man who knew his
business, so Mr. Hart did not have to wait long
for my acceptance of his overtures.
"When will you be ready to start?" he inquired.
"I'm ready now," I told him. "Clear the ship
for Vera Cruz, Mexico, and we will sail in the
morning. Have General Garcia and his party go
to Atlantic City to-night and I will pick them
up off there. Send them down on the last train
to-night so they will not have to hang around
there long, and keep them away from the town.
They can arrange with a fishing-sloop to bring
them out to us. If all goes well we will be off
Atlantic City to-morrow forenoon; if we are
followed by an inquisitive revenue cutter I will
loaf along during the day, double on my track
and lose her during the night, and be standing
by to take the general and his companions aboard
at sunrise on Monday."
There was no way of proving that we were not
going to Vera Cruz, and, as there would be no
revolutionists on board when we left New York,
the government would have no good reason for
again seizing the ship, so I felt little anxiety
on that score. Mr. Hart was pleased with the
plan which I proposed, and after it had been
approved by the Cuban leaders it was worked
[82]




THE CALL OF CUBA LIBRE


out in detail, to guard against any misunderstandings or mistakes. I then went out to the
ship with Mr. Hart and took command. The
Bermuda was a good thirteen-knot boat registering one thousand tons. She had become too
small for the trade between New York and the
island for which she was named, and had recently
been sold to Mr. Hart by the Quebec Steamship Company. She had new boilers and engines, and was in splendid condition. I looked
her over carefully, and also sized up the crew.
Those who looked as though they might "leak"
were paid off and new men were sent out to
take their places. Banked fires were ordered
with a good head of steam, but no one was told
when we expected to sail. To give the impression
that we were in no hurry I returned to the city
and spent the night at the old Stevens House,
in lower Broadway. I was then living in Arlington, New Jersey, which is only a fifteen-minute
ride from New York, but I did not go home
after our arrangements were completed, nor send
any word to my family; they had become accustomed to having me disappear suddenly, but
they always expected I would eventually turn
up safely. If they did not know when or where
I was going, there could be no words dropped
which neighbors and detectives might put together.
At four o'clock on Sunday morning I went
aboard the Bermuda and proceeded to get under
[83]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
way. We were not long about it, but before we were
clear of the Narrows three tugboats, filled with
deputy United States marshals, customs officers,
and newspaper men, were tearing after us. They
came so close that for a few minutes it looked
as if they intended to board us, but they contented themselves with ranging alongside and
peppering us with questions. I told them nothing more than that we did not have General
Garcia, nor any of his friends, on board. They
hung onto us down through the lower bay and
out past Sandy Hook, without getting enough
information to pay for a pound of the coal they
were furiously burning to keep up with us. I
don't know how far they might have followed
us, but, when we were well clear of the Hook,
a kind fortune sent along a blinding snowstorm,
which soon chased them back home.




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


Palma; and General Emilio Nufiez, chief of expeditions for the revolutionists. Dr. Enrique
Hernandez, who had an office at Ninetieth Street
and Madison Avenue, New York, left a profitable practice to go along as staff-surgeon for
General Garcia. They were accompanied by
nearly one hundred of their countrymen who at
the last minute had taken advantage of what
seemed to be a favorable opportunity to go home 
and engage in the war. General Garcia breathed
easier when he saw the Jersey coast going down
astern, with no pursuing ships in sight, but he
was still oppressed by the fear that the expedition would meet with no better fortune than those
which had preceded it.
"I never expect to see Cuba again," he kept
telling his staff-officers.
"Don't you worry about that, General," I
told him. "You are going to get to Cuba this
time.,"
"That's what they have all told me," he replied, mournfully.
"I never have told you that before, have I?"
"No."
"Then take my word for it. This time we will
get you there."
My confidence impressed him a little, and he
lost some of his melancholy; but it was not until
we got within sight of Cuba that he took a really
cheerful view of things.
At an appointed place below Cape Henry we
[861




TREASON AFLOAT


hove to long enough to pick up eight large, flatbottomed dories, in which to land our passengers and the large cargo of arms. In all
filibustering expeditions it is essential to put the
cargo ashore as quickly as possible and get away,
to the more surely avoid detection. Using the
ship's boats, it would have taken us two days
to land all of the stuff we carried, and it was
out of the question to take on the dories at New
York, so it had been arranged that they should
be waiting for us at a designated time and place.
With our cargo complete, we took a circuitous
course, to avoid coastwise traffic and wandering
war-ships and revenue cutters, for the eastern
end of Cuba, going out around the Bahamas
and down through Crooked Island Passage.
This involved some loss of time, but a few days
made no difference as compared with the greater
safety this roundabout way assured. We were
to land in a little indentation in the coast between Points Maravi and Aguacate, five miles
west of Baracoa lighthouse, which is about
thirty miles west of Cape Maysi, the eastern
end of the island.
On the afternoon of March 25th I hove to off
Inagua Island and looked the engines over carefully, examined all of the bearings, cleaned the
fires, and gave the firemen a lesson in smokeless
stoking, which is another thing no filibuster can
afford to overlook. More than one expedition,
otherwise well planned, has come to grief because
[871




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


proper precautions were not taken to prevent
telltale smoke from pouring out of the ship's
funnels. The wise way to put on coal, when it
is desired to hoist no signal which may result
in capture, is to drop it in a heap inside of the
furnace door, instead of throwing it far back
and scattering it, and allow it to coke, after
which it can be sliced up and pushed back. This
trick I learned in my early filibustering days.
The fire that is handled in this way makes just
as much steam as is produced by the ordinary
method, and gives off only a very little thin,
white smoke which can scarcely be seen even
at a short distance.
We had on board two Cuban pilots who, because of their supposed familiarity with the
coast, were to fix the course as soon as we made
out the land and direct the ship to the point
at which the landing was to be made. One of
them was a traitor, as I had suspected for some
time before it was proved, and the other was at
best an ignoramus. We raised Baracoa light
soon after dark. The pilot who had been bribed
to lead us into a trap declared it was the light
at Cape Maysi, and insisted that we run down
the coast for thirty-five miles, where I had no
doubt the Spaniards were waiting for us in force,
both afloat and ashore. The other pilot, as he
was called, agreed with his partner as to our
location. I knew where we were, and I knew
they were wrong. Aside from my reckoning
[88]




[A  CAPTAIN      UNAFRAID
not move rapidly enough to suit my rather impatient frame of mind, so I placed two or three
hard kicks where they would be of the greatest
assistance to him, much to the astonishment of
General Garcia and his party. General Nufiez
said not a word throughout this proceeding,
which momentarily relieved the tension we were
all under, and I had great respect for him from
that moment.
Setting our course by the lighthouse, I headed
in for the landing-place. Naturally, we were showing no lights. The engine-room hatch was covered
with tarpaulins, and there was a canvas cover
over the binnacle light with a small hole through
which just enough of the compass to steer by
could be seen. The Cubans are inveterate
smokers, but I had told General Nunez there
must be no smoking that night, under penalty
of death, and he had given the order. When
we were within about five miles of the coas2 I
made out a Spanish gunboat coming up fL -n
the eastward, hugging the shore; probably she
was on her way to the trap into which the renegade pilot had planned to lead us. Before any
one else saw the war-ship I swung around in a
wide circle to let her go by, and then stood on
into the bight. The pilot who was only a fool
lived close to where the cargo was to be landed,
and when we got close inshore he saw his house,
at the foot of Anvil Hill.
"Oh, look!" he whispered, excitedly; "there
[90]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


hope of escaping, but word was brought back to
me that he was literally cut to pieces by his
companions a moment after he landed. He
well deserved his fate. His partner was kicked
and prodded with machetes all the way to the
door of his cabin.
Soon after General Garcia landed, his little
force was joined by several hundred rebels who
had come down to meet him and assist in carrying the arms back into the mountains. While
our cargo was being landed five Spanish warships were lying just around the point in Baracoa Bay, not more than five miles away. The
next morning their commanders learned what had
happened, and desperate but futile efforts were
made to capture Garcia.
We steamed away as soon as the last boat-load
was clear of the ship, and by daylight were
around Cape Maysi and on our way to Puerto
Cortes, Honduras, where we took on a cargo of
bananas. General Nufiez, who was in a hurry to
get back to New York with the good news, left
us there and went to New Orleans on the fast
little steamer that carried the report of the
drawing of the old Louisiana lottery, which,
perforce, had been transferred to Honduras.
We stayed at Puerto Cortes no longer than was
necessary, for the Bermuda was a British ship;
and there was a good chance that a war-ship flying
that flag might drop in and make trouble for
us, for it was soon whispered around that we
[921




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


of the sort I liked, I construed these orders to
apply only to the ship. Thirty miles below
Philadelphia the tug which had the vessel in tow
put me ashore in New Jersey, and I proceeded
to my home near Newark.
As I had expected, the Bermuda's arrival at
Philadelphia was quickly followed by the arrest
of Mr. Hart and Ed Murphy, the mate, on a
charge of violating the neutrality laws by "conducting an armed, organized expedition against
Spain," and the crew were held as witnesses.
General Nufiez and I were included in the indictment; but we went into retirement until
word was brought to us that, if we would submit
to arrest, our cases would be transferred to New
York for trial. That was satisfactory to us,
and we furnished bail. Our trial came on in the
following July. Good old Judge Brown, who
would have been a noble filibuster if he had not
been a great jurist, again defined the difference
between "an armed, organized expedition" and
one which simply carried arms. Horatio Rubens,
in our defense, argued that as the men and arms
had been taken on board and put ashore separately, they had no relation to each other, so
far as had been established by the evidence, and
he contended that at the most we were guilty
only of smuggling arms into Cuba, an offense
with which an American court had nothing to
do. He pleaded so eloquently that the jury
disagreed; it was said to have stood eight to
[941




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


the captain had made a confession, for he had
been ashamed to admit it.
Though taken completely by surprise, Rubens
saw his way out of the muddle. In ways of
which he was a master, but without making any
definite statements, he conveyed to the judge
and jury the idea that at the proper time he
would attack the authenticity of the alleged confession. Mr. Hinman got the same impression
and made the fortunate mistake of not putting
the confession in evidence. From what had
been said he figured that the captain would go
on the stand and deny that he had made any
confession, whereupon he expected to tear the
defense to pieces. Mr. Rubens encouraged this
belief by stating to the judge in open court, in
response to a question from Mr. Hinman which
that gentleman considered adroit, that "the
defense would not take up more than half a
day."
When the government closed its case, Rubens
set off a bomb himself by announcing that he
would present no defense, the inference being
that the evidence introduced by the prosecution
was so weak that he did not consider it necessary
to combat it. This altogether unexpected move
left Mr. Hinman with a useless confession on
his hands, for, under the rules of legal procedure, there was then no way of getting it into the
record.
Rubens made the opening argument to the
1961




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


Rubens retained possession of the confession
throughout his argument, and frequently waved
it before the jury, as though he wished above
all things that he could show it to them and let
them see for themselves, as he inferentially had
seen, that there was nothing in it which reflected
on the defendant. He could have said all he
had to say in half an hour, but he injected an
eloquent speech on Cuban liberty simply to
take up enough time so that Mr. Hinman would
not have an opportunity to reply to his argument until after lunch.
During the noon recess Captain Brabazon was
taken in hand. He was told that in his argument the assistant district attorney would
allege that he had made a confession, and that
when this statement was made he must rise to
his feet in righteous indignation and pronounce
it wholly false. He was repeatedly instructed
to be very dignified, but also very earnest. He
learned his lesson perfectly; but as soon as he
could get away from his instructors he proceeded
to take considerable red liquor aboard. He
wanted to make a success of his part of the performance, and, besides, he was filled with remorse.
When Mr. Hinman reached Brabazon in his
closing argument, he turned slowly around and
faced him, drew himself up to his full height,
and dramatically declared: "He DID confess."
In an instant the captain was on his feet and
shaking his fist at Hinman. With I ls eyes
[981




VI


OUTWITTING AN ARMY OF SLEUTHS
W    HEN I returned to New York, after having
landed General Garcia and the Bermuda's
cargo of arms in Cuba, I found that Mr. Palma
and his associates were so pleased with the manner in which the expedition had been handled
that they were disposed to be enthusiastic. They
insisted that I become a part of their organization
and remain with them until the close of the war;
and I finally gave them my word that I would
do so. This decision was prompted by nothing
but sympathy with the cause for which they were
fighting and the love of adventure; for their
treasury was always too low to permit any large
salaries, and I could have made much more money
as a pilot. If I had not by this time had a wife
and family to provide for I might have served
without pay, but I had to consider them. It
was agreed that one hundred dollars should be
sent to them every month, which would cover
their expenses, as I owned my own home, and
that I would be paid three hundred dollars for
every expedition I landed. This latter, I may
add, was not always paid when funds were un[100]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


of the best Cubans; and in 1876, when only
eighteen years old, he was arrested, along with
eight or ten others, for taking part in a revolutionary conspiracy incident to the Ten Years'
War. On account of his youth, and the fact
that he could not be made to talk, either about
himself or the others, he was eventually released; but his friend, Carlos Lopez, who was
one of the chief conspirators, was sentenced to
death. After all efforts to secure his release had
failed, Cartaya adopted a most daring method
to effect his liberation. He joined the Spanish
Volunteers, who did guard duty at all government buildings, including the prisons. The
Volunteers were composed of Cubans who were
loyal to Spain. They were more bitter and more
brutal than the Spaniards themselves, and were
the more cordially hated by the rest of the
Cubans. Therefore there was much cursing of
Cartaya when he became one of them.
His real purpose was not suspected, and he
was made a corporal as a reward for his supposed
change of heart. He had to wait several months
before an opportunity to carry out his plan presented itself. Then the sergeant of the guard
was taken sick one evening, and Cartaya found
himself in command of the squad stationed at
the prison in which his friend was confined. He
went to the prison and started to take Lopez out,
explaining that he was taking him to see his
family and would return with him before morn[o12]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


launched he was making more than ten thousand
dollars a year; but he at once resigned his position
and offered Mr. Palma his services, without pay.
He was assigned to the department of expeditions, where he served with such distinction that
at the close of the war he was the only man
whom Mr. Palma recommended to the War
Department for a position in Cuba under the
American occupation. He was made an inspector of customs at Havana, and was rapidly
promoted until he was appointed collector of the
port by General Wood. After abolishing graft
and putting the service on a high plane of efficiency he resigned to go into business for himself.
Dr. Joaquin Castillo Duany, who ranked next
to Mr. Palma in the delegation, was a man of
the same type. He had been a surgeon in the
United States navy, and was a member of the
Bear polar expedition. He resigned his commission to fight for his own country. Throughout the latter part of the revolution he suffered
from a malady which demanded prompt surgical attention; but he refused to take time to be
operated on. When he went to Paris, at the
close of the war, and placed himself in the hands
of the best European specialists, it was too late,
and he died there. He was unqualifiedly honest,
and if he had lived he probably would have succeeded Mr. Palma as President of Cuba. General Nufiez was another true patriot. He was
clean, brave, and shrewd, and the thing dearest
[104]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


each of them was given half of a card which had
been torn in two so as to leave irregular edges.
The matching of these halves served to identify
the men, who often were strangers to each other,
and vouched for each to the other.
By these and other similar methods, suggested
by some experience in baffling detectives, we
guarded against the successful operation of the
spies who were constantly at our heels. From
the day that I returned from the Bermuda expedition until after the United States declared
war against Spain, my home in Arlington, New
Jersey, was watched night and day by at least
two detectives, and for a part of the time by
four. When there were only two of them one
watched the front of the house from a patch of
woods across the street, in which he ridiculously
tried to conceal himself, while the other stood
guard over the rear. They never bothered me
much except when they sought to pry into the
privacy of my home life by peering through the
shutters at night. Mrs. O'Brien rather broke them
of that bad habit when she "inadvertently"
threw a pot of boiling water over one of them
when she heard him sneaking around in the
dark on the back porch. After that I had a few
powerful bear-traps concealed in strategic positions about the house every night, and the detectives lost much of their interest in my strictly
private affairs, though they relaxed none of their
legitimate watchfulness.
[106]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


drink and tell them where I was going. Their
chagrin, when they saw that I knew them, was
highly amusing. They were always puzzled to
know how I picked them up so quickly; but,
though they never suspected it, all of the credit
was due to Fisher.
The detectives and spies were active enough
to earn all they were paid, but they rarely found
out anything we were not willing they should
know. The result was that until our plans were
ready for execution there was no one outside of
the little inner circle who had any definite idea
as to what we proposed to do. When the time
came for action we knew whom we could trust;
but we trusted them only so far as was required
by their share in the proceedings. The treachery from which the Cubans had suffered on every
hand prior to the landing of General Garcia
practically ceased from that time.
On July 27, 1896, just as we had the department well organized and were preparing to get
down to business, President Cleveland issued his
second neutrality proclamation, which was much
more vigorous than the one that had preceded
it a year before. In it "citizens of the United
States and others within their jurisdiction"
were warned to abstain from violating the neutrality laws by in any way contributing "to the
armed resistance to the established government
of Spain then prevailing in the island of Cuba."
They were notified that they must not furnish
[108]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


ganization and its ability to handle things in
a manner that would avoid any serious trouble,
we persuaded him that such a course was both
unnecessary and unwise. Instead of running
away, we argued, the proper way to reply to
Mr. Cleveland's proclamation was to send to
Cuba, as quickly as possible, the largest expedition that had ever been landed there. The
effect of this, we pointed out, would be to impress the Administration at Washington and the
whole country with the strength of the revolution, gain public sympathy by showing a fighting spirit, and at the same time revivify the
rebels. There was much discussion of this plan;
but Mr. Palma finally approved it-though I fear
with some misgivings-and we proceeded to carry
it into effect.
From a firearms manufacturing company at
Bridgeport, Connecticut, we ordered three thousand rifles, three million rounds of ammunition,
three twelve-pounder Hotchkiss field-guns and
six hundred shells, several tons of dynamite
with which to blow up railroad bridges and
do other damage, and a lot of machetes, all
of which were to be ready for delivery within five days. This was much too large a
cargo to be transported in one of the tugs
we were compelled to use, to negotiate narrow passages between the reefs and go close
inshore where the arms were to be delivered;
so the Laurada, a one-thousand-ton steamship
[110]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


the delegation in New York, though they were
not so much in the limelight. Mr. Huau was
never called on for money that he did not respond, and his home was always open to sick or
otherwise unfortunate Cubans. Mr. Fritot, who
was his nephew, was cast in the same mold. He
was born in Cuba of French-American parentage. His father, who had been master mechanic
of the Savanilla Railroad at Matanzas, was
driven into exile after having been twice imprisoned for his revolutionary tendencies. He
died from the effects of his confinement, and the
son grew up with a bitter hatred of everything
Spanish.
Fritot was the active worker at Jacksonville, and
in the ways that were open to him he was the most
useful member of the whole revolutionary organization ashore. He was at that time joint agent
for all of the railroads running into Jacksonville,
and his position made it possible for him to do
things of tremendous value which no one else
could have done. He had the advantage, too,
of living in a hotbed of Cuban sympathizers; it
was not safe to speak a kind word for Spain
anywhere in Florida. The detectives who were
assigned to watch him had many troubles. When
he saw a stranger whom he suspected of being
a spy hanging around the depot, he would have
the special officer at the station arrest him on a
charge of vagrancy or on general principles-it
made no difference which. The prisoner was
[11   ]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


of the detectives, or all of them, would have
been lynched in five minutes. No fear of punishment deterred him from going to this extreme,
for public sentiment would have unanimously
approved the lynchings. It is supposed that
"all is fair in love and war," and, if the Cubans
sometimes went beyond the letter of the written
law, it can never be truthfully claimed that they
were nearly so lawless, so treacherous, or so
murderous as the Spaniards.
James Floyd, a Jacksonville pilot who had a
master's license, was placed in command of the
Dauntless, and in a day or two she left Brunswick and proceeded leisurely down the coast
to the mouth of the Satilla River, sixty miles
north of Jacksonville, ostensibly in search of a
wreck. Under her coastwise license she could
go anywhere without regard to the Custom-House
regulations governing ships bound for foreign
ports. Floyd was a negro; but everything
about him except his skin was white, and he had
a great deal of shrewdness.
As soon as Rubens telegraphed us that the
Dauntless had been purchased, things began to
move rapidly Two-thirds of the arms were
ordered to New York at once; the other third,
which filled two cars, was shipped to Jacksonville by express. The Laurada, which was reported to be going to Jamaica for fruit, left
Philadelphia with instructions to proceed to
Barnegat Light, forty miles south of New York,
[114 




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


was going on, we began hustling our cargo out
of the steamer and across the pier into the
lighter, with the aid of a large party of Cubans
who had been concealed on the latter craft. At
midnight, by which time all of the arms had
been transferred, a tug slipped up, quietly made
fast to the lighter, and towed it away. I went
aboard the tug to direct operations, and we
steamed to Barnegat Light to meet the Laurada,
which had left Philadelphia the previous morning. General Nufiez came out from Atlantic
City in a launch and joined us. We met the
Laurada at the appointed place, well outside of
the three-mile limit, and our cargo was put on
board of her, along with fifty Cubans who were
to assist in landing it. She was ordered to proceed slowly to Navassa Island, where I told
Murphy I would meet him in twelve days with
the Dauntless; and General Nunez, Dr. Castillo,
and I returned to the city on the tug. The
empty barge was anchored in the upper bay, and
we were landed, late at night, at a deserted dock
on the Jersey side of the Hudson. It was not
until I got home that I was picked up by the
detectives, four of whom were anxiously watching the house. They knew I had not forsaken
them for nothing, but they had no idea what I
had been up to. When they discovered that
we were planning another expedition to Cuba
and got on our trail, they were thrown off the
scent in a way that was new to them.
[116]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
and had gone to Jacksonville, where he paraded
himself so prominently that the spies were on
his track in no time. He consulted openly with
Mr. Huau and other active revolutionists, and
quickly caused the impressionable sleuths to
conclude that an expedition was to be sent out
on the tug Three Friends, which had made one
trip to Cuba for the rebels, and was then lying in
the river in front of the city. Hence it followed
that the only other revenue cutter which was near
enough to the scene of action to give us any trouble was hurriedly summoned to watch the Three
Friends; this was before our continued success
had caused the force of cutters in those waters
to be enlarged and augmented with war-ships.
The detectives must have thought we were
moving very awkwardly; but they soon knew
better. I will say for the Pinkertons, and the
famed Secret Service operatives and special
Treasury agents, that one could seldom do the
same thing twice in the same way, right under
their noses, without almost certain detection.
That is all I can say in commendation of their
shrewdness; and, as, with one exception, I never
tried to trick them twice by precisely the same
method, their only effectiveness was in compelling us to think up new ideas, which was not
difficult.
At Charleston we found General Rafael Cabrera in command of a force of seventy-five
Cubans, who were to accompany us; previously
[118]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


Late in the afternoon of the day they arrived
we rounded up our little party and hustled to
the Atlantic Coast Line depot (then the Plant
Line) just in time to catch a train for Jacksonville,
leaving the Commodore with smoke pouring from
her funnel. We occupied a coach at the rear of
the train, which had been reserved for us. The
detectives divided their force when they saw us
start for the station, and a dozen of them wished
to join us as traveling companions; but they were
told that ours was a private car, so they were
obliged to content themselves with the coach
ahead. About ten o'clock that night we reached
Callahan, twenty miles north of Jacksonville,
where the Seaboard Air Line (then the Florida
Central & Peninsular) crosses the Coast Line.
As we came to a stop our coach was quietly uncoupled, and when the train pulled out we were
left behind. By the time the detectives discovered we were no longer with them they could
not jump off without breaking their necks, and
the train had orders from the general manager
to run through to Jacksonville without stopping
for any one.
Before the train was out of sight an engine
backed down and coupled up to our car, switched
us over to the Seaboard track, and headed for
the coast. At a blind siding in the woods some
miles east of Callahan we stopped to pick up the
two carloads of arms and ammunition which
had been shipped from Bridgeport to Jackson[120]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


sitting beside him, had not sought to help
matters along when he saw that Fritot still
hesitated.
"We're not only going to fight Spaniards," he
said, with offensive braggadocio; "but we're
going to kill them. Then we're going to cut off
their ears and string them on a line. Before I've
been in Cuba a month I expect to have a string
that long." And he spread out his arms to their
full length.
Fritot studied both men for a long half-minute. "That sounds like spy talk," he told Welsford. "We are not depriving any Spaniards of
their ears; but I think we will deprive ourselves
of the company of you two gentlemen right
here."
He reached for the bell-cord to stop the train;
but paused before giving the signal to discuss
the situation with some of the Cuban leaders.
After an earnest exchange of opinions it was decided to allow the two Americans to accompany
the expedition; but they were to be closely
watched, and if it developed, after the landing,
that they really were spies, they were to be shot
without further ceremony. Formal and strict
instructions to this effect were given to General
Cabrera, who was admonished to keep the two
men under his own observation and see that
they did not give him the slip before we sailed,
if such was their intention.
"We will see that you get to Cuba, all right,"
[122]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
an extra supply of coal, which was crammed into
our bunkers and piled on deck; and before the
sun was far up we were off for Cuba, with never
a sign of interference. When our departure became known, the Spanish government entered a
scorching protest at Washington. The special
Treasury agent in charge of the horde of supposedly shrewd men who had been assigned to
prevent us from getting away stated, in his
official report of the affair, that "the expedition
had been so artistically handled that detection
was impossible." He had, he said, every reason
to believe we would attempt to start from
Charleston or Jacksonville, and both of these
ports were guarded by revenue cutters.
We left Satilla River on August 14th, and
three days later General Cabrera and his men
and the cargo were put ashore close to Point
Arenal, twelve miles east of Nuevitas. In making this landing our experience with the previous
expedition was repeated, when it developed that
at least one of our volunteer pilots was a traitor.
He tried to rdn the Dauntless on a reef, and if I
had not been keeping a sharp lookout, partly as
a result of what I had seen of Cuban pilots on
the Bermuda, he would have piled us up high and
dry. I saw there was no water where he was
heading for, and I was not a second too soon in
signaling the alert Pagluchi to go full speed
astern. Just as the tug lost way her bow struck
the reef and stuck fast; but by getting all
[124]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


"You've got to have cheek to succeed in this
business," I told him.
Two hours after we had cleared away another
gunboat showed up from the westward; but its
officers must have been sound asleep, for they
detected none of the evidences of the landing
which had just been made. It took three days
to get the field-gun and all of the arms back
into the bush, but no part of them was lost.
The cartridges were packed in fifty-pound boxes,
lined with tin and sealed, so they could be dumped
out in shallow water and taken ashore when it
was convenient.
From Nuevitas we went to Navassa Island
to meet the Laurada, arriving there thirty-six
hours ahead of time. She showed up exactly
at the appointed time and anchored close to
the rock. We took off half of her party of
Cubans and half of her cargo, which we landed
in broad daylight on the afternoon of Saturday,
August 22d, at Santa de Argo Niaco, a little cove
twelve miles west of Santiago. There were several war-ships at Santiago, and the city was full
of Spanish troops; but I had discovered that the
gunboats which patrolled the coast made a
practice of running into some large port about
noon on Saturday and lying there until Monday
morning. During this unwatched interval it
was reasonably safe to make a landing at almost
any place that was not in plain sight of some
Spanish blockhouse or watch-station. We re[ 126 




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


negro will gladly perjure himself for a sufficient
consideration.
With the landing of our last cargo the Laurada
went to Jamaica to load fruit for Charleston,
and the Dauntless headed up for Key West. She
steamed up north of the city, and Nufiez, Roloff,
and I rowed ashore in a small boat, while the tug
went on to Jacksonville; we knew she would be
seized, and we wanted the trial held in a friendly
port. Nufiez, Roloff, and I drifted into Key
West after dark and went to the home of a rich
Cuban, where we were secreted until I had partly recovered from a fever brought on by having
been on the bridge continuously for a week,
when we went on to Jacksonville.
When the Laurada reached Charleston with
her load of fruit the detectives got hold of the six
Jamaicans who were in her crew, and, in return
for their evidentc, agreed to pay them seventeen
dollars a week util the case was disposed of. General Nufiez, John D. Hart, owner of the Laurada,
and Ed Murphy, her commander, were indicted
for filibustering. Hart was tried in Philadelphia
before Judge Butler, the man who hated filibusters, and convicted. He was sentenced to
sixteen months in the penitentiary, and eventually served four months before a pardon could
be secured for him. Of all of the men who engaged in filibustering during the Cuban revolution, Hart was the only one who was convicted,
and his only offense consisted of owning two
[128]




'A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


the Jamaica negroes were taken there to testify
before the Federal grand jury. When the train
on which the Jamaicans were traveling reached
Callahan, a crowd of enthusiastic Americans insisted on taking them off and lynching them.
Fortunately for the benighted blacks, Rubens
happened to be on the same train, and he persuaded the would-be lynchers to abandon their
plan, but not until after he had argued with
them more earnestly than he ever had to plead
with a jury to secure an acquittal.
The negroes identified me easily enough and
told all they knew, but the jury unanimously
refused to vote an indictment. Negro testimony
didn't count for much in Jacksonville, and antiCuban testimony, no matter what the color of
the witnesses, didn't count for anything at all.
After his dismissal in New York, Nufiez was taken
to Jacksonville and tried again for filibustering,
this time with reference to the Dauntless, and
again acquitted. This left the government with
no legal ground for holding the Dauntless, and
she was released.
With all of these little annoyances removed,
we turned our minds to the shipment of more
"aid and comfort" to Cuba. The next expedition was noteworthy from the fact that it included one of the recently invented SimsDudley dynamite-guns. My recollection is that
this unique weapon, which had been tried out
on Long Island some weeks before, was the first
[130]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


cabinet, and more recently speaker of the
house in the Cuban congress, of which he was
one of the dominant figures-who was to accompany him; General Nufez; Dr. Castillo; Cartaya,
and I started south from New York. We were
trailed by a dozen detectives, and for their benefit we first went to Savannah, as though trying
to dodge them, and then to Charleston, where
we repeated the bluff of using the Commodore,
which was still lying in the harbor under guard
of a revenue cutter.
While the sleuths had their eyes glued on the
Commodore, which was getting steam up and
sending black smoke streaming out of her stack
in a way that would have been criminally careless under other conditions, we slipped away to
Jacksonville, where Fritot had made arrangements for us to continue our journey in style.
The private car of Mr. J. R. Parrott, vicepresident and general manager of the Florida
East Coast Railway, had been placed at our disposal, with an engine, and the special train was
waiting for us. Mr. Parrott was unable to accompany us; but he sent his general superintendent, Mr. R. T. Goff, to make it appear that
a few of his friends were going down the line on
an inspection trip. Fredericks rode with us;
but it was not long until several members of the
party wished it had been possible for him to
make the trip by some other route. He carried
a shabby old valise to which none of us had pre[132]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


coaches containing seventy-five Cubans, who
had been brought over from Tampa on a special
train. At Palm Beach, which was deserted at
that time of the year, the train was run out on
the Florida East Coast dock alongside of the
Dauntless, which was waiting for us. It was
an easy matter to get the cargo aboard of her,
and she was steaming toward Cuba in a few
hours. Nufiez and I were barred from accompanying her by a ruse of the Spanish minister
at Washington, who, having become suspicious
that another expedition was under way, had
the filibustering charge against us, growing out
of our trip with the Bermuda, moved up on the
docket and set for trial within a few days. Consequently Dr. Castillo took charge of the expedition, and Captain W. H. Lewis, of the Three
Friends, went in command of the Dauntless.
The expedition was landed on the night of
October 26th, at the mouth of the San Juan
River, fifteen miles east of Cienfuegos. While
it was being unloaded a little Spanish gunboat
went by close inshore; but she failed to notice
the Dauntless. General Betancourt was so slow
in getting the arms back into the bush that a
large part of them were lost. They were left
lying around on the beach for four days, with
the natural result that they were discovered by
a passing war-ship and captured. The dynamitegun was saved, largely through the energy of
the untamed Fredericks; but half of the rifles
[134]




VIII


MIKE WALSH DRAWS BLOOD
THREE cargoes of arms and ammunition
landed in Cuba by the Dauntless within a
week, followed by another one two months later;
and the government's inability to convict any
of those who played an active part in the expeditions set the Washington authorities by
the ears. President Cleveland was thoroughly
angry over the way in which his neutrality
proclamation had been defied; and, by his direction, peremptory commands were issued which
he believed would assuredly put an end to filibustering. The Spanish government, which had
been complaining bitterly of our freedom of
action, was advised of these additional precautions, and the chiefs of both capitals took fresh
hope that there would be no further straining
of their diplomatic relations.
Increased activity by the Revenue Cutter
Service was ordered, and the Navy Department
was called on for assistance; the latter we regarded as a great compliment, even though it
added to the difficulties we were obliged to overcome. The dynamite-cruiser Vesuvius, under
[136]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


for me. The Holyrood, a British tramp steamer,
was just then in need of a pilot to Boston, and
I took the job. Before we had made fast to the
dock in Boston the vessel was surrounded by
detectives, Secret Service operatives, special
Treasury agents, deputy United States marshals,
customs officers, and Spanish spies by the dozen.
The enraged captain and his mates actually
kicked them off the ship until they were exhausted. The funny part of it was that the
Holyrood was actually bound for Cuba with a
perfectly legitimate cargo, for which she went
to Boston; but no power on earth could get the
idea out of the wise heads of the detectives that
she was to be loaded chiefly with munitions of
war. They were the most inquisitive and persistent bloodhounds-with apologies to all fourlegged bloodhounds-I had ever seen, for they
were positive they had, at last, made a real discovery. I enjoyed the joke until the captain
could no longer kick hard enough to make a
detective howl. Then I returned to New York,
where I was met with the cheering news that
my bondsman had no fear that I would run
away.
I then went to Jacksonville to arrange to get
another expedition away, for the Cubans were
calling for more arms. General Weyler, who had
succeeded the comparatively gentle Martinez
Campos as Captain-General, was building his
famous trocha across the narrowest part of the
[138]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


but after that the price was reduced to $10,000.
The crew got double pay while they were out,
and from $500 to $1,000 was distributed among
them after each trip.
By devoting the Dauntless to lawful navigation for the greater part of the time, she acquired
a mixed reputation, in place of one entirely bad,
and the authorities were confused. It never
would have done for us to use one ship all of
the time. The Three Friends was also towing
between Jacksonville and the bar when I reached
the city. Both vessels were closely watched by
the Vesuvius; but unless there was something
suspicious in their movements or in the general
situation, the war-ship did not follow them up
and down the river on their routine trips. My
presence soon started some talk that we were
planning another violation of the neutrality
law; but I pretended to be sick, and was not
much in evidence. The unfailing Fritot, for
whose genius for deception I had come to have
great admiration, and I were working together,
and our tracks were so faint that no one seemed
able to follow them.
The clever detectives decided that, if there
really was anything doing, we would use the
Dauntless, on account of her record of unvarying
success; so we naturally selected the Three
Friends. George L. Baltzell, collector of customs at Fernandina, twenty-five miles up the
coast, who was the most faithful kind of a pub[140]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


General Rafael Perez Morales, who had lost
an eye in the Ten Years' War, was to command
the landing party. He was summoned from New
York, and the fifty men who were to go with him
were selected in Jacksonville. Between two and
three hundred Cubans who were anxious to go
home and engage in the war were constantly
held at Jacksonville and Tampa under waiting
orders. They were allowed five dollars a week
to cover their living expenses, and were ready
to sail at a moment's notice. Colonel Carbo
came down from New York with Morales to
accompany the expedition as the representative
of Mr. Palma.
It was arranged that the expedition should
leave on a Sunday night. The one thing of
which our friend Mr. Baltzell was especially fond
was draw-poker. One Sunday afternoon Napoleon Broward, one of the owners of the Three
Friends, and afterward governor of Florida,
happened to be in Fernandina; and, as he could
not leave until the next day, he had no trouble
in fixing up a poker game for that evening, at
which Mr. Baltzell was to sit in. At about the
same time that this pleasant little affair was
arranged the Three Friends left Jacksonville
with a schooner in tow. She reached the bar
late in the afternoon, and, after casting off the
schooner, stood up the coast, apparently in
search of another tow. Soon after dark General
Morales and his men, one and two at a time,
[14a]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


the clock, started for "home"; but instead of
going there he jumped on his bicycle and rode
out to a crossing north of the city, where, having
eluded the detectives who were supposed to
shadow me, I met him. In a few minutes the
special train with General Morales and his party
came along and stopped for us. We boarded it
and proceeded to Fernandina, stopping at Yulee
to pick up the two freight-cars loaded with arms.
On our arrival at Fernandina an unobtrusive
signal told us the poker game was in full swing
and there was nothing for us to worry about.
The special train was run out on a dock to which
the Three Friends had quietly tied up an hour
before. The cargo was transferred to her without any unnecessary noise or delay, and at daylight we were out of sight of the town. Mr.
Baltzell raised a great ruction when he discovered
that an expedition had been despatched from the
bailiwick of which he had done so much boasting;
but it was too late then for anything save bitter
regrets, with which he was well supplied.
Our destination was the San Juan River, east
of Cienfuegos, where the Dauntless had landed
her last cargo, much of which, on account of the
delay in getting it away from the beach, had
fallen into the hands of the Spaniards. The loss
of these arms had interfered with the operations
of General Gomez, who was scattering death and
destruction through Santa Clara province, and
he wanted others in place of them. However
[ 144]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


"You are running away from a shadow," said
Carbo, throwing out his chest.
"Do you think so?" I inquired, with some
sarcasm. "We'll wait and see."
I jerked the bell with a stop signal; but before we had lost way the gunboat banged away
at us with a one-pound shell, which splashed
not far ahead of us.
"That's what you might call an animated
shadow," I suggested to the subdued Carbo,
as I hooked her up again at full speed, without
the faintest sign of an objection from any one.
A moment later I made out two more gunboats,
six or seven miles away, coming up from the
east and west to head us off. Their appearance
made it plain that there had, for once, been
treachery in our camp. Some onewhoknewwhere
we were bound for had communicated with the
enemy, and the trap had been nicely set for us.
Seeing the fix we were in, I ordered the Hotchkiss twelve-pounder, which was lying boxed up on
the forward deck, into immediate service; all
of the deck aft, where it could have been used
to much better advantage, was taken up with
the dories in which the cargo was to be landed.
There were several adventurous Americans on
board, and among them was a praiseworthy
person named Mike Walsh, who had been a
gunner in the United States navy. When Mike
learned that the big box contained a brand-new
gun, he stepped up and offered his services.
[1461




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


the deck. That was one of the times when
Providence was kind to us. As a rule, boxes of
high explosives, even when their contents are
frozen and comparatively safe to handle, are
not opened with an ax. The dynamite was
gathered up and thrown into the sea, and a more
careful man was assigned to get out the Hotchkiss shells.
I had thought we could run away from the
gunboat astern of us without much trouble; but
I soon saw that she was rapidly gaining on us.
It developed that our boilers were so badly
fouled with grease and salt that they could not
make steam enough to send us along at more
than eight or nine knots an hour, when we
should have been doing half as much again.
John Dunn, the regular engineer of the Three
Friends, was regarded as a competent man; and
Pagluchi had made the mistake of accepting his
statement as to the condition of the machinery
instead of making his own investigation.
When the pursuing gunboat got within a little more than a mile of us she opened a savage
fire with her one-pounders; Spanish gunnery was
notoriously bad, and hers was no better than
the average; but she was literally hailing shells
at us, and some of them came uncomfortably
close. In a few seconds I found myself alone
in the pilot-house, the two Florida "crackers"
who, on account of some local reputation for
bravery, had been engaged as helmsmen, having
[148]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
slam into him when a shout from Pagluchi told
me the gun was ready. It was trained between
the deck-house and the shrouds, so the tug had
to be swung around three or four points to get
it to bear. I put the helm hard over to starboard by climbing up on the wheel, which should
have been handled by two strong men instead
of one little Irishman, and waited for the report.
As we altered our course I was exposed to the
full force of the Spanish fire. Rifle bullets sang
right merrily through the pilot-house; but not
one of them so much as grazed me, though they
chipped the wheel and stanchions.
I had expected to hear the roar of the gun
as soon as it bore on our enthusiastic pursuer;
but in place of it a lot of vigorous profanity
floated up from the deck, which told me something had gone wrong with its mechanism.
Without waiting for the particulars I climbed
up on the wheel again and straightened her out.
By that time the other war-ships were only a
short distance ahead of us and close together
at the end of the channel, and it began to really
look ticklish. In less than a minute, while I
was rapidly calculating the chances of escape
after we had rammed the gunboat astern,
Walsh sang out that everything was all right.
Using what seemed to be the last of my
strength, I climbed up the spokes of the wheel a
third time. As we swung around the gun
roared. At the time it appeared to me that it
[1501




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


had torn loose the lashings with which it was
made fast to the deck, and kicked it almost
through the bulwarks. It was a lucky chance
that it did not go overboard. When we looked
the Three Friends over the next morning, we
found evidences of Spanish bullets everywhere;
but none of them had done any serious damage.
The Spaniards are about the only people on'
earth who could have failed to sink us that
night.
With the best speed we could make we proceeded to No Name Key, north of Knight's Key,
where we landed the cargo and General Morales
and his party on Christmas Day. We left
enough provisions to last them a week, and the
Three Friends went on to Jacksonville, while
Colonel Carbo and I chartered a small schooner to
take us to Key West. From there we went to Tampa on the Olivette, and slipped into Jacksonville,
where we met General Nunez. We got away
on the Dauntless as soon as we could sneak her
out of the harbor, and picked up the expedition
on New-Year's Day, 1897.
The reloading of the cargo was delayed by a
surprising interruption, which, while it had an
amusing side as viewed in the light of history,
seemed tragic at the time, for it threatened another and more serious disaster. On account of
her draft the Dauntless was obliged to lay three
or four miles offshore. The patrolling cruisers
and revenue cutters that were looking for us
[1521




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


stand, by means of the whistle, that there was no
cause for alarm, and they warily returned; but
we had lost several valuable hours, and it was
dark before we got the last of the arms aboard.
A southeaster was kicking up a nasty sea, and
Nufiez wanted to stay in the lee of the island
until next day; but I knew if we remained there
the Marblehead or McCullough would be down
on us at daylight, so we went out into the gale.
We passed Key West at sunrise, eight miles out.
They must have seen and recognized us from the
naval station, but they knew they could not
catch us and did not care to try. We ran on
around Cape San Antonio, at the west end of
Cuba; and on the morning of January 3d put
the cargo and party ashore in Corrientes Bay,
just inside of Cape Corrientes.
This final performance was more like a Fourthof-July celebration than the secretive landing
of a filibustering expedition. As we came to
an anchor I intended to give one short blast of
the whistle to summon some of Maceo's troops,
who were waiting for us near the cape; but
something went wrong with the siren, and it
boomed its loudest for a full five minutes before
we could shut it off. The Dauntless had a siren
that would have done credit to an ocean liner,
and if there were any Spanish troops or a gunboat within ten miles of us they ought to have
heard it. Our nerves had hardly recovered
from this shock when a careless Cuban dropped
[154 




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


Technically, that may have been what it amounted to, for the United States had denied the Cubans
belligerent rights, but morally it was a very
different matter. When we got back to Jacksonville we found the despatch-boat Dolphin,
which had been added to the protective force
in our absence, and the revenue cutter Boutwell
watching for us off the mouth of the river. We
were all hauled into court and solemnly informed
that we were under arrest. The grand jury
investigated the case with great care, but
decided, by the usual unanimous vote, that
there was not sufficient evidence to justify any
indictments. Plainly stated, there was no
chance of convicting us save out of our own
mouths, and there was not a man aboard
the Three Friends whom the government could
induce to talk either by threats or promises.
Even the distracted Dons aboard the gunboat
we fired on could not have sworn that the shot
came from the Three Friends. The most they
could have testified to was that the shot was
fired from a ship which closely resembled the
Three Friends; but all tugboats look alike on
a dark night. Therefore the friendly grand jury
merely saved all hands the expense and bother
of a trial that would have been only a farce.




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


which stamped him as a detective-I could smell
sleuths in those days. He was tall and slender,
and even his physical appearance suggested a
corkscrew. Though he looked as innocent as
most of iis kind, there was more to him than
was displayed on the surface, and I sized him
up as a man with whom I would have to be
careful.
He gave me the name he chanced to be using
at the moment; but I paid no attention to it,
as I knew it meant nothing. As soon as we were
alone he handed me a formidable-looking document sealed with wax. It proved to be a letter
from Jose Congosto, the Spanish consul at Philadelphia, offering me twenty-four thousand dollars
to reveal to him the landing-place of the next expedition I took out. In one way I found myself
admiring Congosto, for he neither wasted words
nor minced them. He proposed that I indicate
the point, close to the Cuban coast, at which it
would be most convenient for me to have a gunboat intercept and capture us, with the assurance,
of course, that no harm would come to me. I
was to be protected in every way, and the Cubans
were never to know nor have reason to suspect
that I had betrayed them. If I accepted this
proposal I was requested to visit Philadelphia on
the second day following and receive the money,
which was to be paid in advance by agents for
Congosto at a time and place that would be indicated by the bearer of the letter. The com[158]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


he did not understand that it was not for money
alone that I was working with the Cubans.
Several minutes of strained silence followed.
Each one of us was trying to get the other to
talk, and each was afraid of saying too much.
The detective refused to show his hand, except
in response to suggestions, so I was forced to lead
him on a little.
"It seems to me," I said, "that if I were to
do a thing like that I ought to get more money
for it. While it might not become definitely
known that I had 'leaked,' it would be suspected,
and my usefulness in the kind of work I have
been doing, which is the work I like best, would
be destroyed. Therefore I should be paid
enough so that I could retire and do what I
pleased. I seem to be the only man who is able
to land expeditions whenever he wants to, and
if you should buy me off it might so dishearten
the Cubans that they would give up the fight.
If they can't get arms into Cuba they can't
continue the war."
The detective thought he had me going, which
was some reward for such a long speech. "That
is just what we want!" he exclaimed, almost
with enthusiasm. "The offer of twenty-four
thousand dollars is simply a basis for negotiations. I have no doubt they will pay you much
more than that if you will do as they wish; they
might even pay you twice as much."
After some general discussion as to how the
[1601




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
others, and they joined in his excitement, with
the exception of Rubens, who never lost his
head, no matter what the provocation.
"Where you get it, where you get it?" shouted
Mr. Palma, in the broken English he always used
when he was disturbed.
I told him it had been delivered to me by a
Spanish agent two days before, and gave him a
resume of our conversation.
"Well, what you do, what you do?" asked
Mr. Palma.
"I'm not going to do anything about it," I
replied. "I brought it over to give it to you.
You can do what you like with it."
"We will have Sefior Congosto arrested," exclaimed Palma. "We will punish him for trying to corrupt our organization."
Rubens smiled. "We will do nothing of the
kind," he calmly said. "We are not in strictly
legitimate business ourselves; let us not forget
that."
The force of his argument was apparent. The
question was then raised as to whether it might
not be permissible, under all of the conditions,
for me to give the Spaniards a false tip as to our
next destination, take their money, and turn
all or a part of it into the revolutionary fund. I
refused point-blank to be a party co such an
arrangement, and the others agreed with me.
It was our opinion thai, while we might be violating the written law to the extent of giving
[162]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


a big expedition, and the month following the
visit of his emissary was filled with activity.
General Roloff had been indicted in 1895 for
taking a filibustering expedition out of Baltimore on the James Woodall, an English steamer.
They tried to make a landing near Nuevitas;
but after one boat-load of arms had been sent
ashore the captain went into a panic over an
imaginary war-ship and ran away. The balance
of the cargo was dumped overboard, and the ship
returned to Baltimore, where the captain turned
state's evidence against Roloff. His trial had
been postponed from time to time, but it was to
come up in February, and it had been announced
that there would be no further adjournment.
When Roloff returned from his trip with the
Laurada, whose cargo was landed by the Dauntless during her busy week, he did so much talking that he was indicted in New York. His
trial on this charge was also set for the latter
part of February. In making parlor conversation he had told so much about what he had done,
and what he thought he had done, that the
government had him dead to rights in both
cases.
The Spaniards regarded Roloff as a dangerous
man and were determined that he should not
go to Cuba. We who knew him could not imagine where they got the information on which
they based their estimate of him, but it would
never do to have the secretary of war in the
[1641




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


about the same height, and descended into one
occupied by another friend of the revolution,
who was waiting for us at the open scuttle.
From this unwatched residence we stepped into
a waiting carriage and drove off into the night,
leaving our other conveyance standing in front
of the house we had first entered, with the detectives hanging closely about it so they would
be sure to miss nothing.
At Hunter's Point we went aboard the tug
Volunteer, which had tied up at the dock a few
minutes before we arrived, and proceeded slowly up through the familiar swirls of Hell Gate.
For nearly two weeks we zigzagged back and
forth across the Sound, putting in at Whitestone, Cow Bay, Glen Cove, Oyster Bay,
Bridgeport, New Haven, New London, and
Greenport. All of these landings were made at
night, and at each place I sent a man ashore to
telephone Mr. Palma, over a private line which
we knew was secure from eavesdroppers, to keep
in close touch with developments in New York.
Roloff, Brunet, and I kept out of sight when we
were inshore or close to another vessel. It was
about as unpleasant a trip as could be imagined,
for the weather was very cold and stormy, the
accommodations were cramped, and Roloff was
seasick every minute of the time that we were
not made fast to a dock. Finally off Montauk
Point the tug Commander met us and took off
Roloff and Brunet, with whom she steamed, for
[1661




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
produce an involved situation by having the
expedition start, technically, from British soil.
To that end the Bermuda, in command of Ed
Murphy, was sent to the island for which she
was named with a cargo of coal. After discharging the greater part of her load she was directed
to await orders, which were to be cabled to
Murphy. General Nufiez, Cartaya, and Chanler
sailed secretly on the Bermuda. The Laurada,
which was lying at Baltimore, was to tow a
schooner carrying arms and Cubans to Watlings
Island, or San Salvador, east of the Bahamas
and two hundred and fifty miles due north of
the east end of Cuba, where they were to be
transferred to the Bermuda and landed by her.
The Laurada's machinery was in such bad shape
that it was not safe to transport the cargo in
her; but she was good enough to tow a ship,
which could proceed under sail if the steamer
happened to blow up.
When we started to get the Laurada away
from Baltimore, a succession of libels were filed
against her, many of them on unjust claims, and
all inspired by the Spanish minister. Though
we could have beaten most of these claims, we
could not afford to fight them on account of
the time it would take, so they were paid as
quickly as possible. Then the government inspectors held up the ship on the ground that she
was unseaworthy. They finally consented to
allow her to go to Philadelphia to have her boilers
[168]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


brushed against us as we boarded a ferryboat
in Jersey City for lower Manhattan. The
sleuths went forward, while Fisher and I
stayed aft; and as the ferryboat pulled out of
her slip I jumped ashore and went aboard
of another ferry that" was just leaving for
Twenty-third Street, New York, three miles
north of where the other one landed. The discomfited detectives held a conference and cleverly concluded to stay with Fisher and my bag,
as there was nothing else for them to do. I had
instructed Fisher to shake off the sleuths, if possible, and meet me at Broadway and Twentythird Street at eight o'clock. When I cautiously
approached him at the appointed place he signaled that the detectives were watching him,
so I slipped away minus my baggage.
After seeing the Briggs away, I went across to
the Jersey side of the Hudson in the tug Josephine B., to pick up the dynamite and bombs.
We got the cargo aboard without being observed,
so far as we could see; but when we started down
the river we discovered that we were being
followed by another tug, which evidently was
well loaded with detectives, deputy United
States marshals, customs officers, and Spanish
agents. We ran close enough to her to make out
some of the men who were on board, and cruised
around until we were sure she was trailing us.
This was rather an unexpected development,
but we were not entirely unprepared for it.
[170]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
secrecy. Her captain carried out his orders
splendidly. When he saw that he was again
under the anxious eyes of the encouraged sleuths,
he started off up the Hudson at full speed, with
the Spanish tug in hot pursuit. The chase continued for twelve or fifteen miles, when the captain of the Josephine, apparently convinced that
he could not shake off his pursuer, turned around
and ran back down the river and into the lower
bay, where he suddenly came to an anchor.
The delighted detectives, who were by this time
convinced that they had prevented our departure, ordered the commander of their craft
to follow suit, and the two vessels laid close
together until the next forenoon. Then the
Josephine stripped off her mask and resumed her
customary pursuits, and it dawned on the fussy
foxes that they had overlooked something.
When the two tugs started on their race up
the river the lighters steamed out of the basin
and down through the Narrows in pursuit of
the Briggs. We had been delayed so long that
by the time we caught up with her, off the Highlands, she had taken the towing-line from the
Laurada, and they were waiting for us. The
dynamite was transferred to the schooner; but
most of the party went aboard the steamer,
where there were better accommodations.
"Throw me a line for my trunk," 1 shouted
to Sam Hughes, who was captain of the Laurada.
I had the laugh on him when his men hauled
[17  ]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


On account of the steam-pressure to which we
were limited, and with the schooner in tow, we
made what seemed to be very slow progress;
yet we were off Watlings Island in just a week.
It had been supposed that the Bermuda would be
waiting for us there, as orders had been cabled
to Murphy to start from Bermuda three days
after we left New York; but she was nowhere
in sight. We waited for her a week; and when
there was then no sign of her it was clear that
something had gone wrong, and we were forced to
revise our plans. I proposed that we make the
landing with the Laurada. Captain Hughes,
who, of course, represented her owner, demurred
at this on account of the strong probability that,
in her crippled condition, the ship would be captured. I knew the vessel had been offered for
sale for eighteen thousand dollars, so it was
agreed that if she was captured or sunk the
Cubans would pay twenty thousand dollars for
her. If we ran afoul of a war-ship and could
not get away, I announced that I would open
the Laurada's sea-cocks and sink her, in which
case all hands would have to take to the small
boats and do the best they could to escape to
the Cuban coast or lose themselves among the
shoals and keys of the Bahama Bank; if we
were discovered while making the landing we
were to blow up the ship and go into the bush
with the Cubans. This plan was agreed to, and
the cargo was put aboard the Laurada. Captain
[174]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


tered the little river. To guard against attack
from the rear we mined the mouth of the channel
with two five-gallon demijohns of nitroglycerin,
which were connected up with wires running
to the shore, where one of Fenn's Cuban experts
was stationed with instructions to blow up any
ship that tried to follow us. By the time this
welcome to meddling war-ships was completed it
was so dark that from the bridge I couldn't see
the bowsprit, so it was a case of going in entirely
by the chart. I hadn't a great deal of faith in
Spanish charts, for on my first trip around the
east end of Cuba I had discovered that Cape
Maysi was fifteen miles east of its location on
the chart, and so reported on my return to New
York, with the result that a new and correct
chart was soon issued by the United States
Hydrographic Office. That there were not more
wrecks when the old chart was used was due
to the fact that the hills at the east end of the
island were easily made out during the day,
and at night the cape was indicated by a powerful light.
However, in this case there was nothing to
do but trust to the chart-and to luck. The
engines were slowed down to a speed that gave
us a bare steerageway, and we literally felt our
way through the invisible lane of endless twists
and turns. Many times we heard the bow and
stern scraping overhanging branches of trees we
could not see as we squirmed around sharp cor[176]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


line and summon the fleet of war-ships in Nipe
Bay.
It took us all day and all night to unload our
cargo, and when it was all piled up the old dock
looked like a warehouse. As soon as we tied
up, a messenger was sent to General Garcia, who
was encamped only a few miles back in the hills,
and he came down with three thousand men and
got all the stuff away before the Spaniards could
get together a force that dared to attack him.
Roloff and his party joined Garcia's forces.
Through it all a cloud of thick, blue smoke rising
from the little fort across the bay indicated that
its cowardly occupants were giving themselves
up to much futile chatter. They might have
made it lively for us while we were unloading,
before General Garcia appeared with his troops;
but to attack us effectively they would have had
to move around the bay-and they could not
take their fort with them.
We went out at daylight on Monday, and
when I saw the channel I wondered how we ever
got through it. The Cuban explosive expert,
tired and sleepy, but none the less watchful, was
still on guard at the mouth of the river. I sent
word to him to be careful not to blow us up if
we were chased back into the snaky stream, but
to set off his nitroglycerin under the pursuing
ship. This precaution was taken because of
the possibility that we would run into one of
the gunboats from Nipe Bay starting out on its
[178]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


concerning the landing at Banes, "but his very
daring will eventually deliver him into our hands.
Sooner or later we will get him, and when we
do, instead of having him shot along with his
Cuban companions, I am going to have him
ignominiously hanged from the flagpole at
Cabafas, in full view of the city. Yhu can communicate that information to him if you wish.
He might be interested in knowing what is in
store for him, for we surely will capture him
some day."
Cabafas is the old fortress, once impregnable,
but now only a magnificent ruin, in which Cubans
who were known or suspected to be in sympathy
with the revolt were lined up against a wall and
shot almost every day during the war. The
rampart along which these executions and murders took place, the granite blocks spattered with
blood and nicked by tens of thousands of Mauser bullets, was subsequently decorated with a
bronze tablet in memory of the patriots who died
there.
Weyler's boast was promptly conveyed to me,
with an amusing description of the dramatic
effect with which it was delivered. Through
the same channel I sent back this reply: "To
show my contempt for you and all who take
orders from you, I will make a landing within
plain sight of Havana on my next trip to Cuba.
I may even land an expedition inside of the harbor and take you away a prisoner. If we should
[s182




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


of its location it was a favorite loafing-place for
the Spanish gunboats, whose commanders were
much given to graft. Instead of taking on the
three or four hundred tons of coal which they
were supposed to consume on a cruise, they
would purchase only half as much, and put the
money for the other half in their pockets. Then
they would anchor off Lobos Key, with banked
fires, until they had theoretically consumed the
coal they hadn't bought, when they would proceed to the east or west. It was nothing unusual for four or five of these thieving war-ships
to be riding at anchor in this soft spot at one
time.
The Lobos light was kept by an old Englishman and his nephew, and one of the first things
I did, when our organization got down to business, was to establish an amicable arrangement
with them, which was easy, for they despised
the cowardice and crookedness of the Spaniards.
We carried down fresh vegetables and delicacies
for them on every trip, and in return they kept
us posted as to the movements of the gunboats.
We also used the lighthouse as a post-office, and
messages were left there for us by our newspapercorrespondent ally and by the Cubans, who,
when the coast was clear, sailed across the narrow channel in their little sloops. Eventually
the Spaniards got onto this scheme, and shortly
before the Maine was blown up they made
representations to the British government which
[1841




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


"If the Navy Department and the revenue
cutters will leave us alone I will carry excursions
to Cuba with every expedition. I will advertise
the time and place of our departure, and guarantee that every expedition will be landed on
time." I think the captain thought for once
I was bluffing; but I wasn't; I knew the Spaniards. I judged them by what I had seen of
them, and I may add that I have never had
occasion to alter my estimate of their fighting
ability on either sea or land. They are prone
to panic at the unexpected scratch of a match,
and have other racial weaknesses; which, however, must not be taken to mean that there
are not some brave, honest, and high-minded
Spaniards. They are the strong spirits that
have not been fouled by their surroundings, and
are the exceptions which prove the rule. Not
many of this class were sent to Cuba.
The trouble with the native Spaniard is that
he has lived too much in the past, and devoted
too much time to the worship of his justly distinguished ancestors. The vengeance of a natural law has been visited upon him. The
Spaniards were once the aristocrats of Europebut that was four hundred years ago, and, like
all aristocracies, they have deteriorated. But
it is significant of the dormant strength of the
old Spanish blood that the Spaniard away from
his native environment, and the musty traditions
of past glories, readily accepts the spirit of the
[186]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


trip weighed nearly one hundred tons and was
valued at eighty thousand dollars. It was, therefore, decided to carry our coal supply on the
schooner and put the arms on the ocean-going
tug Alexander Jones, which had been engaged
to do the towing. With her bunkers practically empty, and taking coal from the schooner
every day or two, the Jones could carry the cargo
without any trouble.
While we were patching the schooner up, to
improve the chance that she would stay afloat
until she had served our purpose, I received
word from Fritot to get out of Wilmington, as
the detectives had heard I was there and were
coming in search of me. Cartaya and I promptly disappeared and went to Florence, South
Carolina, an inland town where not even a
Pinkerton man would look for a filibuster. However, we ran right into a really good detective
in the person of the proprietor of the hotel at
which we stopped. He soon guessed who we
were, and the word was whispered around until
it reached half of the townspeople; but they
were such warm Cuban sympathizers that no
word of our presence was permitted to reach the
outside world.
After snooping around for two weeks, the detectives concluded they had been drawn to
Wilmington by a false scent and went away,
which again gave us a fairly clear field. Though
they had been unable to gather any information
[188]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


which was loading with coal at the Wilmington
& Welsdon Railroad wharf while we were taking
on the arms. As she was hauled down the stream
she passed within hailing distance of the Colfax,
the other revenue cutter which had been assigned to prevent any anti-Spanish activity, but
aroused no suspicions. We passed a line to the
Long, when the tug Jacob Brandon cast her off,
and started unconcernedly south, for there
was nothing about a crippled schooner being
towed down the coast to arouse the curiosity
of any cutter or cruiser we might encounter.
General Nufiez and sixty Cubans, who were
to land with the arms, met us off Palm Beach
in a fishing-schooner and came aboard. We then
headed for the Dog Rocks at the northeast
corner of Salt Key Bank, where we were to meet
the Dauntless. The wreckers and pirates who
lived there were an inquisitive lot, and they
bothered us so much with their idle efforts to
find out who we were and what we were doing
that we moved down to Damas Key, farther
south on the edge of the bank, to get away from
them. We anchored there on May 18th. Two
days later we were joined by the Dauntless,
which had slipped out of Jacksonville light, and
I went aboard of her with General Nuniez and
Cartaya and twenty of the landing party. We
coaled from the schooner and took on half of
the cargo of arms, which we landed on May 21st,
[190]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


unconcern was due to a fear that we had another
Mike Walsh aboard.
To keep my word with General Weyler, the
balance of the cargo from the Jones, with most
of the Cubans who were going to the front, was
landed a mile and a half east of Morro Castle,
which guards the entrance to Havana harbor,
and scarcely more than three miles in an air
line from the captain-general's palace. It happened that just at that time the rebels under
General Alejandro Rodrieguez, who was commanding general of the army in the first Cuban
Republic, had Havana closely surrounded. They
were in need of arms, and there was no trouble in
getting our cargo away from the landing-point,
which would have been at best a difficult operation if such a vigorous campaign had not been
in progress. General Rodrieguez was carrying
the fight right up to the gates of the city. The
night before we landed Colonel Nestor Aranguren, with a small party, held up a train three
miles outside of Havana, on the line to Guanabacoa, in the hope of captuiring a particularly
cruel Spanish officer named Fondevilla, whom
it was intended to shoot on the spot. The man
Aranguren wanted was not on board; but he
captured a dozen Spanish officers and two
Cuban officers who had gone over to the enemy.
The Spaniards were released in a few days, to
save the trouble and expense of feeding them;
but the two traitorous Cubans were hanged.
[ 19 ]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


from a match or a cigarette when we were anywhere near the Cuban coast.
We laid astern of the merchant ships until
the moon went down, and then steamed up the
shore and landed our cargo and party by the
illumination from  the lighthouse on Morro
Castle. We could just as well have gone four
or five miles farther down the coast, but I wanted
to show General Weyler that if he was given to
boasting I was not, and that it was a duty with
me to keep my promises. If the distance codld
have been measured it might have been found
that we were within a mile of the Morro; certainly we were not more than a mile and a half
away. The Morro light is a brilliant flash that
can be seen for eighteen miles, and every time
it swung around one could have seen a pin on
the deck of the Dauntless. Over the rising
ground that separated us from the harbor and
across the bay the lights on the hills back of
Havana were in plain sight, and when the light
from the Morro flashed on them the sentries
pacing the walls of Cabafias stood out in bold
relief. Back of the old Cabafas, toward the
sea, was a partly completed modern fort which,
with decent gunnery, could have blown us to
pieces in two minutes, but every one seemed to
be sound asleep.
While we were putting the arms ashore a
steamship stood off and on about four miles
away, and seemed, at times, to be watching us.
[1941




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
manders at the Morro, Cabanias, and the shore
battery court-martialed, and his naval chiefs
were hauled over the coals in a way that put
gray hairs in their heads. The Cubans, on the
other hand, were immensely elated, and the
delegations in the United States made the most
of the event in their educational campaign. The
unopposed landing of an expedition within pistolshot of the Morro was evidence to the American
peop!le who always like to see the little fellow
winning out in a fight, that the rebellion was a
real war, and that the Cubans were rapidly gaining ground. The effect of the cordial sympathy
thus created was soon made apparent to the
Spanish minister at Washington, and as a result of it we were not surprised to learn, through
our agent in his establishment, that, in the most
diplomatic language, but none the less plainly,
he had advised his government that the recall
of Weyler would create a favorable impression
in the United States and go far toward counteracting the gains which the Cubans had made in
public sentiment. To some of his influential
friends in Spain, to whom he wrote urging the
recall of the captain-general, Mr. de Lome used
stronger language. He told them, in effect,
that we had "made a monkey of Weyler," and
said he had abundantly demonstrated his unfitness to command in Cuba.
The fact that we had landed every expedition
which we took out had counted against Weyler,
[196]




XI


WHEN THE LAW GOES BLIND
ONE of the most interesting expeditions of
the war, filled with comedy and tragedy,
high lights and shadows, in sharp contrast,
quickly followed the landing of a cargo of contraband in General Weyler's front yard. The
aggressive Fritot had everything ready to move
by the time we returned to Jacksonville, and we
were off to sea again with hardly a breathing
spell.
Two car-loads of arms and ammunition were
secretly shipped three hundred miles down the
coast to Fort Lauderdale, an old trading-station
twenty-five miles above Miami, where they were
placed aboard the Biscayne, a stern-wheel
coaster, along with thirty Cubans in command
of Colonel Mendez. They were to be transferred to the Dauntless off New River Inlet, just
above Fort Lauderdale, on Saturday, May 29th.
As an evidence that luck was not always with
us, it happened that a special Treasury agent
named Hambleton, who had been fruitlessly on
our trail for months, was enjoying a short vacation with a couple of English friends who were
[1981




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


unless it became necessary, I saw the rowboat
close alongside. Tom Davis, the mate, tried
to shove it off with a boathook, but Hambleton
threw his gun in Davis's face and climbed over
the rail. Pointing his weapon in the general
direction of the crew and the Cubans, who had
not paused in their efforts to get the Biscayne's
cargo onto the Dauntless in the shortest possible
time, he yelled:
"In the name of the law I command you to
stop putting those arms on this vessel. You are
all under arrest."
Every one stopped work, but only for a moment. Fritot stepped up to Hambleton and
tickled his lower ribs with the muzzle of a revolver which he carried in his coat pocket.
He did not display the pistol; but it was silhouetted by the strain on his light coat, and
it could be seen his finger was on the trigger.
"Don't pay any attention to this person," said
Fritot, in a voice so hard and cold that every
word snapped. "He's not going to shoot any
one. Go ahead and load the ship."
The men knew Fritot, and they turned to on
the cargo without a second glance at the threatening shot-gun. Under the silent eloquence of
the revolver that was pressed against him with
a hand that did not tremble, the disturbed detective concluded it would be unwise to try to
enforce his order.
[E00]




A CAP TAIN UNAFRAID
to be anything but a prying war-ship, and,
knowing the approximate whereabouts of most
of the patrol boats, I took her to be the revenue
cutter Winona, coming up from Key West on
a scouting trip. The Winona could do no more
than seven or eight knots an hour, which was
only two-thirds the speed of the Dauntless, so
I thought we had time to take on the rest of
our cargo before she got close enough to prove
dangerous. It was soon apparent, however,
that the stranger was a much faster ship than
the old Winona, so we cut loose from the Biscayne and put to sea on the jump. In the lastminute rush bundles of rifles and boxes of cartridges were thrown indiscriminately on the
deck of the Dauntless without any pretense of
stowing them.
We were obliged to run northeast, to get out
of the bight in which we had been lying, before
we could haul around to the southeast and head
for the Bahama Bank. This right-angled course
enabled the war-ship to pull up on us rapidly,
and I soon made her out to be the cruiser Marblehead, Commander Elmer, then one of the fastest
ships in her class. Smoke was coming from only
one of her two stacks, so I knew she had steam up
in but two of her four boilers. Under these conditions the Dauntless was her match in speed,
and I fervently hoped her other boilers were
out of commission. The Bahama Bank was
seventy-five miles away, and our only chance
[ o202 




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


rowed to the Dauntless I found myself wondering what his attitude would be. While we never
had been shown any favors by the war-ships
assigned to watch us, I had gained the idea that
sentiment in the navy was strongly opposed to
the Spaniards. Men who love the sea, more
than any other class, love a fight against odds,
and from this I argued that the American naval
officers' must sympathize with the Cubans,
though how far they would dare to go in showing
their real feeling was another question. Unless
the officers of the Marblehead put their blind
eyes to the telescope we were in for serious
trouble, for incriminating evidence was piled up
all around us. Though as much of our cargo
as could be concealed had been hidden away,
the deck was still so cluttered up with boxes of
cartridges and bundles of rifles that one could
not walk about without stumbling over them.
The rifles were strapped together in bundles of
five and wrapped with burlap. Many of the
covers had been torn in the hurry of getting
them aboard, and the butts and muzzles of the
guns could be seen through the rents. The boxes
of cartridges were stamped in large letters ".43
CALIBER," and several of them had been broken
open, revealing their contents.
When the lieutenant boarded us he was so
gruff and apparently so unfriendly that one
might have imagined him a Spanish officer; but
the manner in which he conducted himself made
[ 04 ]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


wise. "There's a little gray-haired chap aboard
whom they call 'Johnny.' Possibly he is Captain O'Brien."
"I guess that is he," said the captain, with
a broad smile, of which Floyd told me with delight.
Another lieutenant was sent aboard the Dauntless with Floyd, and we were ordered to follow
the cruiser to Key West, where we were turned
over to the collector of customs. He sent out
two inspectors who looked under the mattresses,
in the coal-bunkers, in the galley, and every other
place where they were sure no arms were concealed; but could find nothing that suggested
filibustering. Armed guards were then sent on
board, and we were held incomunicado for
twenty-four hours, while Washington was communicated with. This was done to show the
Federal authorities that the situation was being
handled firmly and impartially, and also to
keep inquisitive people who might testify against
us away from the Dauntless.
Notwithstanding the reports of all of the
searchers, orders were cabled from Washington
to proceed against us-which was done, no
doubt, to appease Spain-and General Nufiez,
Colonel Mendez, Cartaya, Floyd, and I were
haled before United States Commissioner Julius
Otto on a charge of "organizing a military expedition against a friendly power." Otto and
Cartaya were old friends. Before we were ar[2 06




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


ing report. The little ship shook and shivered
as though she was going to pieces, and mud and
grease, with which the boiler was badly fouled,
were scattered all over her; but not a man was
seriously injured. Fortunately, that was one of
the very few trips on which we carried no
dynamite.
We got sail onto the tug and headed due north.
Two days later, near Alligator Reef light, on the
Florida coast, we were picked up by the revenue
cutter McLane, which was searching for us to
prevent us from going to Cuba, and towed back
to Key West. We reported that we had been
disabled before we found the imaginary wreck,
for which we were supposed to be looking, and
the government generously ordered the McLane
to tow the tug to Jacksonville to have her boiler
repaired. She went into dry-dock there without
removing her hoodoo cargo, which, after all of
its vicissitudes, finally reached Cuba, but not
until several months later.
The explosion on the Dauntless compelled us
to get another vessel with which to run the
double blockade while she was out of commission.
The Three Friends was at our service, but I had
condemned her, so far as our purposes were concerned. She was a poor sea-boat, had a weak
boiler, and always needed fixing somewhere.
Having been built in Jacksonville, she was well
advertised in the newspaper reports that were
sent out from there, and got a lot of glory out
[208]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


had gone only a little more than half that distance, with Cape Hatteras abeam, we ran into
a nasty southwester. The wind worked around
into the south, and increased until it was blowing
a living gale and piling up a terrible sea. The
towboat could not keep the schooner's head into
the wind, and was in danger of being dragged
down by the stern every time the tow-line
tautened. Her captain was stricken stiff with
fright, and refused to go any farther.
As soon as the tow-line was cast off Captain
Gurney, of the Briggs, signaled that he also intended to turn tail and run for it. There was
some excuse for the apprehension of the captain
of the little tug; but for Gurney, with a big,
stout vessel under him, there was none. Whether
with or without his connivance, his ship was sure
to be seized at the first port he put into, which
would mean trouble for all of us and a setback
to the revolution. I was determined there should
be no unnecessary embarrassments of that kind;
but the only way to prevent them was to get
aboard the schooner. Gurney refused to lower
a boat for me, and we could not get the tug's
life-boat free from its lashings, in the buffeting
to which we were being subjected.
I told the tugboat captain what I proposed
to do, and he assisted me most ably, though with
many profane expressions of entire confidence in
my insanity. We ran up in the schooner's lee,
getting as close to her as any man would have
[210]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


charge of General Rafael Gutierrez, who was
going to join Maceo, was landed on Sunday,
September 5th, just east of Cape Corrientes, on
the south side of the west end of Cuba. The
second one was put ashore on the following
Thursday night at Point Tarara, ten miles east
of Havana, with the Morro light flashing on us.
The party which was landed with this cargo was
commanded by General Rafael de Cardenas, who
was chief of police of Havana under General
Leonard Wood in the first American occupation.
The third cargo was landed on the night of Wednesday, September 15th, at the mouth of the
Arimao River, a mile and a half east of the lighthouse on Point Colorados, at the entrance to
Cienfuegos Bay. The empty schooner set a
course for Norfolk, and the Smith headed for
Key West, where Nufiez, Cartaya, and I rowed
ashore, while the tug went on to Pensacola.
When we returned to Jacksonville, after the
smoke created by the burning words of the Spanish agents had cleared away, we found the
Dauntless again in commission. The arms which
she had on board when her crown-sheet blew out
had been secretly landed and stored after she
left the dry-dock. They were needed in Cuba,
and we contrived to get them there. It was well
known that Alphonso Fritot, who was directly
in charge of revolutionary shipments at that productive point, was to be married on October 7th,
and the detectives cunningly conjectured that.  12 ]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


which was then patrolling the southern coast in
opposition to our activities, was composed of the
battle-ship Maine; the cruisers Newark, Raleigh,
Cincinnati, Detroit, Marblehead, and Montgomery;
the gunboats Nashville, Wilmington, Helena, and
Annapolis; the monitor Amphitrite, the dynamitegunboat Vesuvius, and the revenue cutters
Winona, Forward, McLane, Boutwell, Colfax, and
Morrill-rather a formidable force to be arrayed against one little tugboat. In the course
of the next month or two several additional ships
were assigned to watch us; but the results were
the same as before.
While we were making the landing at Nuevitas
Point, General Nufiez was getting another expedition ready, and I was hurried to New York
to take charge of it. In some ways it was a
repetition of the trip of the Donna T. Briggs;
but the delays were greater, and there were more
things that went wrong. The two- masted
schooner Silver Heels, a coaster from Rockland,
Maine, had been chartered to carry a cargo of
arms from New York to Conception Island, on
the easterly side of the Bahamas, where she was
to be met by the Dauntless. One of the Moran
tugs had been engaged to tow her six hundred
miles, and she was to finish the trip under
canvas.  The steam-lighter Lizzie Henderson
loaded the cargo at Bridgeport, and on Saturday night, October 16th, transferred it to
the Silver Heels below Sandy Hook, where the
[2141




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


All of these negotiations and adjustments took
time, and we had been lying to an anxious anchor
for nearly a week when the Dauntless hove in
sight. To put us in a better position for quick
action, she towed the Silver Heels around to
Orange Key, where she was anchored, well out
of the path of ordinary travel. The Cubans on
the Dauntless were transferred to the schooner,
and she was left in charge of Cartaya, while
General Nufiez and I went aboard the tug and
continued on to Jacksonville, to keep faith with
the good Judge Alvarez. Our absence was unexpectedly prolonged, and the interval was an
uneasy time for Cartaya. There was one incident in particular that caused him concern.
One afternoon a schooner bore down through
the short-cut channel from Stirrup Key, which
was known to but few navigators, and hove to
within short hailing distance.
"What schooner is that?" she called.
"The Silver Heels," shouted Cartaya, for her
name could easily have been made out with glasses.
"Where are you from?"
"Havana," replied Cartaya, who was taken
off his guard by the sudden inquiry.
"What did you take down there?"
"Potatoes."
"What did you get for them?"
"Seven dollars a barrel."
"Thank you," shouted the other skipper, as
he hauled in his sheets and stood off on his course.
[2161




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


"No; why?"
" Never mind why; but if I were you I wouldn't
mention her name again as long as you are in
Havana. If you do you are very likely to be
hanged."
The astonished captain took the tip; likewise
he took two dollars a barrel for his potatoes without further argument.
When the Dauntless returned to Jacksonville
the Vesuvius was still on guard in front of the
city, and, in addition to the war-ships and customs craft that were rushing frantically up and
down the coast from Key West to Fernandina,
two revenue cutters were patrolling the twentymile stretch of river running down to the sea.
They watched us so closely that it was two weeks
before we found a chance to slip away from them.
On November 19th we left for Savannah with the
schooner Jennie Thomas in tow, and, instead of
returning at once to Jacksonville, we ran back
to the Silver Heels. Under ordinary conditions
we would have made two or three trips with her
cargo; but it had been so long on the way that
it was decided to land all of it at once. Our
scuppers were awash when we had all of the arms
and the landing party on board, but the sea was
smooth, and we took the chance of running into
bad weather.
On the night of November 28th, six weeks
from the ti Ae the Silver Heels left New York,
we started t. put the expedition ashore at Cape
[ 218 




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
she be watched. Orders were again telegraphed
Captain Sigsbee, who commanded the Maine,
to keep his eye on the Dauntless. Six weeks
later, after having been twice specifically directed to protect Spain's interests, the Maine
was blown up in Spanish waters; but I never
have believed that the Spaniards had anything
to do with her destruction.




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
Spaniards were trying to make out of the death
of Lieutenant-General Antonio M Qeo, who was
killed on December 7, 1897, five days after the
Dauntless returned to Jacksonville from the
landing of November 28th, as he was leading a
detachment of troops against Havana. He had
planned a quick, sharp raid on the capital to
give the lie to Captain-General Blanco, who was
loudly proclaiming that he had Maceo bottled
up in Pinar del Rio, and that the revolt had
finally been stamped out. Forty miles southwest of the city he encountered a small Spanish
force, and, in the skirmish that followed, Maceo
was instantly killed, almost by accident. As
in the case of Marti, the Spaniards did not
recognize him at first. When it was discovered
that the most dashing of the rebel leaders had
been put out of commission there was great
rejoicing at Havana and Madrid, and General
Blanco blatantly boasted that with his death
the rebellion was actually at an end. It was
feared that this might be believed, and we wished
to prove to our American sympathizers that
there was no thought of giving up the fight.
General Ruis Rivera, whose landing from one
of our expeditions had been followed by one of
the most severe battles of the war, in which the
Spaniards sought to prevent him from joining
Maceo and gave him a running fight for sixty
miles, succeeded to the command in Pinar del
Rio, and began a vigorous campaign to divert
[ e   l




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


tives, who knew what was going on, did not
imagine that I would leave at such a time, so
they accommodatingly relaxed their vigilance.
As soon as it was dark, without even waiting
for Mrs. O'Brien to come home, I slipped out
by the back way and hurried over to New York,
where Dr. Castillo, Cartaya, and a party of
Cuban officers were waiting for me on a tug.
We at once put off up through the Sound and
reached the Tillie on Saturday morning.
Two tugs, towing two large lighters loaded
with arms, arrived from Bridgeport at the same
time. They had started for New York, according to the report that was given out, and the
detectives were waiting for them there. The
particular pride of this expedition was a beautiful dynamite-gun which had been on exhibition
in New York, and was considered the most destructive weapon in the world, as well as the
most terrifying. To keep it company there were
several tons of dynamite, three thousand rifles,
three million cartridges, several thousand machetes, and a lot of small arms and medical supplies. It was a cargo well calculated to arouse
enthusiasm among the rebels and enable them
to operate more effectively and offensively.
With a lighter on each side of her the Tillie
was loaded in about six hours, and we put to
sea late in the afternoon, heading east-southeast to keep well clear of the shore and prevent
them from getting our direction from the light[2241




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


the night, drove wedges in between the sleeve
of the shaft and the timbers. There were some
circumstances which tended to support this belief, yet I never accepted it.
When I discovered on Sunday morning that
something was wrong, the water was over the
shaft, and it was too late to make any investigation; besides, there were other things of more
importance that needed to be done, for even then
the water was beginning to splash the fires out.
The pumps were losing ground every minute, and
it was plain enough that the ship was bound for
the bottom of the sea; it was only a question
of whether she sank in deep or shallow water. I
immediately hauled her around and headed for
Long Island in the hope that we could keep her
going until I could run her ashore. It was then
blowing hard from the southeast, so we had the
wind with us to start with; but from the looks
of things I knew it would be only a few hours
until we ran into a hard northwester.
In an effort to keep the fires above the rapidly
rising water I ordered the cargo thrown overboard; when I thought of how much the Spanish
minister at Washington would have enjoyed
seeing the bundles of rifles and boxes of cartridges sending up bubbles, I fervently wished
we had him on board-but not for that reason
alone. The wonderful dynamite-gun, in which
so many hopes had been centered, was held until
the last, and when it went overboard I turned
[ 26 




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


"Then I'm three times worse off than you are,"
I told him, "for I've got the best wife in the
world and eight children. It looks as if they are
going to have to get along without me from this
time on, but crying about it isn't going to help
them, and it certainly won't do me any good.
They would be ashamed of me if they thought
I showed myself a coward. Try to be a man for
a change; you'll feel better about it."
That shot, intentionally brutal but none the
less true, took some of the hysteria out of Berry,
and thereafter he added less to the brine that
was coming aboard, though he was far from
cheerful. We looked in vain for another craft
of any kind, and by the middle of the afternoon it seemed as though it was all up with us,
for there was not much daylight left, and with
her deck almost awash it was impossible that
the Tillie could keep afloat all night. The gale
had swept us out to sea so rapidly that by that
time we were fifteen miles offshore, midway
between Fire Island and Shinnecock light. The
wind, which was filled with icy needles, had
kicked up a wild cross-sea, and it was more
comfortable to go down with the ship than to
even think of trying to escape in the boats.
Just as I had practically given up hope the
Governor Ames hove in sight, tearing up the
coast to windward of us under double-reefed
lower sails. I knew it was the Ames as soon as
I got a good look at her, for she was then the
[ 228 




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


rowed to the schooner. There were twenty-one
of us left, which was more than the other boat
could carry. Under such conditions I naturally
expected to stay with the ship and proposed to
the others that they draw lots to decide who
should go in the boat; but John, the steward,
and seven of the Cubans refused to leave the
steamer. They insisted that they would rather
risk their lives where they were than to attempt
to reach the schooner. No argument could
change their decision, so the rest of us clambered
or fell into the boat and let the wind sweep us
away from the doomed ship.
The Ames stood in for us twice, and hove to
only a short distance away; but we did not have
strength enough to pull alongside of her; we
were so exhausted by our efforts to keep the
Tillie afloat and benumbed by the cold that it
was all we could do to bail enough water out
of the boat to prevent it from sinking. Seeing
our helpless condition, Captain Waldemar, who
commanded the schooner, determined to sink
or save us. He stood straight for us, and, when
we were close aboard, dropped all of his canvas
except a couple of jibs. The schooner had so
much way on that in a moment her bowsprit
was directly over our heads. Even then, with
the wind helping us, we could not pull to leeward of her. It seemed a certainty that we
would be run down; but just in the nick
of time the ship paid off a trifle, under the
[230]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


It was a terrible thing to have to sail away
and leave the four men-the steward and three
Cubans-on the Tillie, knowing, as they did,
that she would go down before morning and
take them with her; but that is the way of the
sea. If they had not declined to leave the
steamer when they had the opportunity, I doubtless would have taken the place of one of them
in "Davy Jones's Locker."
The Ames reached Providence, whither she
was bound when she providentially crossed our
drifting course, on Tuesday, and we returned to
New York by the first train. When we reported to Mr. Palma at the Astor House that
evening, he went into hysterics. He had some
excuse, it must be admitted, for, with our clothes
torn into ribbons and grime and grease from the
engine-room, where we had fought to keep steam
up until the last minute, ground into our skin,
and with our hands and faces cut and scarred,
we undoubtedly were a hard-looking lot. After
the story of the disaster had been told I went
home to my anxious family, while Horatio
Rubens took the rest of the survivors to an uptown hotel for dinner, where they attracted
much attention, as the afternoon papers had
contained long accounts of the loss of the Tillie.
Every one concerned was careful not to admit
that we had been on a filibustering expedition;
and, as all of the evidence which might have
been used against us was at the bottom of the
[232]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


ington, to a friend at Havana, in which he spoke
of President McKinley as "a low politician."
This document, which had fallen into the hands
of the Cubans in a manner that made it appear
to be a gift from the gods, was rightly regarded
as more valuable ammunition than ship-loads of
dynamite or car-loads of guns, for it required no
prophetic vision to discern the effect its publication would produce.
First and foremost, it assured us of more kindly consideration at the one Spanish stronghold
on which we had been unable to make any impression-the White House at Washington. Instead of having "catered to the rabble," as was
charged by De Lome, Mr. McKinley had maintained an attitude that was absolutely correct
from the standpoint of international law, though
extremely incorrect, as I believed, for the President of the greatest republic on earth. He had
never evinced the slightest sympathy for the
Cubans, in public or private, and had exerted
all of the forces at his command to prevent
assistance from reaching them. To influential
members of his own party who had urged him
to intervene in Cuba, to put an end to wholesale
murder and countless Spanish brutalities within
sight of the American flag, he had repeatedly
declared that he "would not be forced into an
unholy war." Having taken such a decided
stand against the growing sentiment of his
country, we knew the vulgar criticisms of De
[2341




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


point we were to start. General Nufnez, Cartaya, and I went to Jacksonville, where we ran
into an unusually large force of Spanish spies
and Secret Service operatives. Our continued
success, in spite of all they could do to block
us, had driven the Spanish agents to desperation,
and they were literally throwing money away
by the handful in their efforts to gain some information as to our plans. On the other hand,
Mr. McKinley was most anxious that nothing
should happen to lend color to De Lome's bitter
complaint just as he was demanding from Spain:an adequate apology for the minister's statements.
To that end every one connected with the Federal government had been instructed to exercise
the greatest care to prevent filibustering, and
the stars of the Secret Service had been assigned
to watch us.
It was in anticipation of just such precautions
as these that the arms had been ordered shipped
to Tampa, where a dozen detectives were hopefully looking forward to their arrival. The
sleuths supposed we intended to start from the
west coast, and we carefully fostered that belief. When all was ready General Sanguilly,
who it had been duly whispered around was to
command the landing force, and a party of
Cubans started, with apparent secrecy, for
Tampa. At the same time Nufez, Cartaya,
and I went into retirement. The detectives
took it for granted that we had gone to join
[236]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


Grande, a short distance east of Nuevitas, at
almost the exact spot where we had put an expedition ashore eight months previously.
On the night of February 16th, a little more
than twenty-four hours after the explosion on
the Maine, the remainder of our cargo was
landed inside of the harbor at Matanzas. Considerable caution was necessary, for we went so
close to the city that Cartaya saw the home of
his parents and pointed it out to me. General
Carlos Rojas, who was in command of the rebels
in that district, was hard pressed by General
Molina, the Spanish commander, and he had told
us just where to land the arms so that he would
be sure to get them. The point he had indicated
was midway between a fort at the mouth of the
Canimar River and the lighthouse at the entrance
to the harbor and not more than two miles from
either of them. The first arc light in the city
which came into view as we steamed slowly into
the broad bay looked so much like the searchlight of a Spanish gunboat that I went full speed
astern in a jiffy; but I soon saw my mistake and
we went on in. The landing was quickly and
quietly made, and we got away without having
been seen, though with the glasses we could
plainly see the soldiers at the fort and people
moving about in the city.
As we did not wish to embarrass President
McKinley by furnishing any evidence, through
our presence on board of her, that the Dauntless
[ 3s8]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


learned that the Vesuvius had been out searching for her, on the belated report of Spanish
agents that she had left Fernandina with an
expedition. She was seized by the government
two weeks later, but it was purely a perfunctory
proceeding, and her bond was released soon after
war was declared against Spain. We did not
use her again, as we were well satisfied to let
matters between the United States and Spain
take their natural and inevitable course; to
have continued our activity might easily have
weakened the position of the Administration at
Washington. When we resumed the fight for
Cuba it was with the American flag flying over
us, and under it we found situations as stirring
as any we had experienced when we were operating in defiance of a tyrannical law and without
any recognized flag. Strange as it may seem,
I could see no difference, for the real principle
involved seemed to me to have undergone no
change.




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
Daiquiri and the quickly following battle of
Las Guasimas are generally recorded as the
first of the war, though this engagement did not
occur until the latter part of June. Until the War
Department could carry out its plans for landing an army in Cuba its policy was to strengthen
the hands of the rebels. To this end the Gussie
was loaded with arms and supplies for General
Pedro Diaz, then in command in Pinar del Rio
province, who had been advised of their coming.
A full company of the Eighth Infantry, in command of Captain Joseph E. Dorst of the Fourth
Cavalry, was sent along to cover the landing.
The Gussie was convoyed by the revenue cutter
Manning, one of our former enemies. On May
12th she steamed close inshore near the entrance
to Cabanias Bay, forty-five miles west of Havana,
to land couriers who were to summon General
Diaz. From the ship the coast seemed perfectly clear; but twenty men were sent ashore
to guard against a surprise. They were followed by the three couriers-Charles Thrall,
Hayden Jones, the artist-correspondent for a
New York newspaper, and a Cuban-and their
horses. As the horses were being landed a detachment of Spanish soldiers opened fire on the
infantrymen from a clump of bushes not more
than a hundred feet away, where they had been
well hidden. Without waiting for a command
the Americans spread out in open order and
charged the bush.
[14]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


getting anywhere near the shore, while the distance was too great to be covered with the big
dories that were ordinarily used in landing
cargoes. Her filibustering purpose disappeared,
before she was completed, with the blowing-up
of the Maine; but it was concluded to take her
to Key West and use her, under direction of the
War Department, in communicating with points
along the Cuban coast which vessels of ordinary
draught could not approach. I attended her
launching, and, small as she was, I confess it
was with some pride that I hoisted the Cuban
flag over her in an American port. She was
the first vessel built by the Cuban republic and
the first to fly its emblem. The newspapers had
a lot of fun with her on account of her size; but
she was a good, stanch craft and perfectly
suited to the purpose for which she was built,
for I drew the plans myself. I left New York
with her on June 22d, and made an easy passage
to Jacksonville, where we were given an enthusiastic reception. There I received orders
to leave her and go to Tampa to take command
of the Wanderer. After the close of the war
Cartaya took the Alfredo to Havana, where she
was laid up. Many people tried to buy her,
but the Cuban government refused to sell her
and allowed her to fall to pieces.
The Wanderer was a twin-screw fruiter from
New Orleans which had been chartered by the
army transport service. She was loaded at
[ 44]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


Mississippian, displayed as great bravery as I
have ever witnessed.
We raised the mouth of the Manimani early
in the morning of July 23d. The reefs at that
point extend so far out to sea that it was necessary to get inside of them to put the cargo ashore,
so we sounded our way in, taking the precaution,
as in the old filibustering days, to buoy the
channel as we went along with grate-bars and
empty boxes. There was deep water almost up
to the beach, and we went to within less than
half a mile of the shore before coming to an
anchor. The expectant Cubans were congregated on the west bank of the Manimani, and
we proceeded to land our cargo there in the
ship's boats. So far as we could make out with
the glasses there was not a Spaniard in sight.
We knew there was a large fort at Bahia Honda,
but we did not know that one hundred of the best
marksmen stationed there had marched down
during the night and concealed themselves in
the bush a short distance back from the beach
on the opposite side of the river from the Cubans.
They had either secured advance information of
our coming or had become suspicious, through
the continued presence of so many natives, that
they were looking for an expedition of some
kind.
The Spaniards gave no hint of their nearness
until late in the afternoon, by which time most
of our shipment had been landed. Then they
[2461




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
as cool about it as though he had been on dressparade at a two-company post in the Far West,
and his men were no more excited. One of
them had his cheek laid open with a Mauser
bullet.
"I'd give a thousand dollars if I had that
wound," shouted Heard, as he took his eyes
away from his glasses long enough to shoot an
envious glance at the injured marksman. Then
he added: "Make 'em pay for that, boys. It
will take just ten dead Spaniards to settle that
account."
We were lying in a very narrow channel,
and but for the fact that the Wanderer had
two screws I doubt that we would ever have
made our way out of it, for the tide was ebbing and the ship was headed toward the
beach. At the pop of the first gun I ordered the anchor hove short, and when the
firing settled down to a steady fusillade I ordered it up, and signaled the engine-room to
stand by. "Billy" Ross, the second mate, was
hurrying the men who were tending the windlass when a bullet smashed his knee, and he went
down in a heap. At that the skipper of the ship,
who was a fat Dutchman, threw himself flat on
the deck and launched forth into an impassioned
but incoherent prayer for help.
The men stuck to the windlass, however, and
the anchor came up on the run. As soon as it
was clear I signaled the engineer to go full speed
[248J




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


of the telegraph. One of them stood just outside of the pilot-house and shouted the orders
to his partner, who passed them on down through
the engine-room hatch. In a few minutes both
of these men were shot down. Heard himself
then jumped into the breach.
"That's a fine place," he shouted, gleefully.
"Maybe I'll get shot too. I'll give 'em a chance,
anyway."
He refused to order any one to assist him,
and transmitted the orders alone. I would shout
them to him, and he would run back to the hatch
and pass them on to the engineer. As he ran
back and forth the things he said about the
Spaniards almost burned holes in the deck where
his words fell. In this way we gradually worked
our way out of the tight hole we were in, with
the Spaniards and the rest of Heard's men persistently plugging away at each other until we
were out of range. When the row began the
men who were landing the cargo rowed out to
sea, and we picked up their boats, as we went
along, without stopping.
It was found, when we had time to look things
over, that we had seven men who were seriously
wounded, though none of them died, and several
with minor injuries. We never knew how many
Spaniards were put out of commission, for reinforcements arrived from the fort before we
were out of sight, and all of the dead and wounded
were carried away; but there was some satis[ 50]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


to secure surgical assistance. Night came on
before we had covered half the distance, and
the effectiveness of the blockade was indicated
by the fact that we were twice held up by torpedo-boats before we reached the fleet. The
little scouts were running without lights and making so little fuss that I failed to distinguish
either one of them until they hailed us, which
suggested one vital point of difference between
American and Spanish naval methods. When
we got up to the San Francisco, which was the
flag-ship, Commodore Howell sent two surgeons
aboard to attend our wounded, and one of them
accompanied us to Key West, where those of
our men who were severely injured were placed
in the hospital. I was sent along to keep them
company, with a bad case of fever which had
been coming on for some time and hadn't been
helped any by the strain of the preceding twentyfour hours; but I couldn't stay in the hospital
with its depressing atmosphere, so in a day or
two I was permitted to go to a hotel.
Two weeks later, after the Wandere- ilad failed
to land the remainder of the cargo with which
we had run away from the mouth of the Manimani, I again took command of her. We landed
a lot of provisions at Caibarien, in Santa Clara
province, where the natives were dying every
hour from starvation. Those who were still
alive were literally walking skeletons with frightfully distended abdomens. It was impossible
[e52]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
more mischief; but, strange to say, he was not
recognized, and was allowed to board a liner
bound for New York.
The Wanderer was used in the transport service until September, when 1 took her to New
Orleans and turned her over to her owners. I
then returned to New York and left the Cuban
service on October 10, 1898, by which time the
war was over; the Spaniards were evacuating
Cuba; the Americans were in charge of the
government-with the hope of all of the intelligent Cubans that they would continue to
supervise Cuban affairs for ten or fifteen years
at least, by which time they expected to be capable of self -government -and there was no
further need for my services.
There were many expressions of gratitude for
what I had done for Cuba, which undoubtedly
were sincere, and profuse promises of future rewards, which probably were well meant. I was
also assured that a considerable balance which
was due me for expeditions I had landed would
be paid when the Cubans came into their own,
or as soon as the money could be raised; but
this debt has never been liquidated. This is
stated in no spirit of complaint; I refer to it
only because some people have believed that I
profited largely through my Cuban connections.
To be in all respects accurate, this record should
show that it was with no thought of selfishness
that I enlisted in the war for Cuban indepen[254 ]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


boat. To take her out to sea in the stormy
season was regarded as the essence of recklessness, which may explain why I was asked to take
command of her; but those who held this view
failed to recognize her unique seaworthiness. I
had the space reserved for teams bulkheaded at
both ends, with the timbers running to a point, so
no water could get down into the engine-room;
and in the cabins, forward and aft of the paddlewheel boxes, every alternate board was taken up,
so that the waves could slosh up through the openings without danger of upsetting us. The crew,
which I secured with considerable difficulty,
consisted of a mate, two engineers, three firemen, a cook, and two sailors. We lived in the
two pilot-houses, and the galley and mess-table
were on the main-deck, between the bulkheads.
We cleared at the Custom-House, which was a
ceremony so long neglected that I had almost
forgotten the routine of it, on December 7th,
but did not sail until a week later, as I refused
to leave without a good fire-hose, which the
craft lacked when she changed hands. The
wisdom of this caution was soon demonstrated,
for on the first night out, soon after we had raised
Barnegat light, something went wrong with the
electric-light wires, and they started a fire in
one of the cabins. The flames were fanned by
a heavy northwest wind, and but for the hose,
which was taken along for just such an emergency,
the old boat would have been destroyed in a very
[256] 




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
were only a couple of hours behind her in reaching Havana the next morning. The gale gave
the Olivette a shaking up that those aboard of
her remembered for a long while. All of her
crockery was smashed, and our master-mechanic
friend was thrown out of his bunk and so badly
bruised that he had to go into dry-dock for several days. The Brinckerhoff rode the storm out
like a duck. Her wide wheel-guards prevented
her from rolling, and, with the wind dead astern,
we hardly knew it was blowing. All of which
proved again that the big things are not always
the best.




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
ingly ingenious cryptogram code by which all
important happenings were transmitted in the
form of seemingly innocent messages of a more
or less personal nature. Every code message
contained a word which indicated that it was
in cipher, and two key-words which, when applied to a chart in the Herald office, conveyed
one of several hundred arbitrary messages which
covered every important development that could
ensue. The relative positions of the key-words,
which were always within the first twenty words
of the despatch, gave the essence of the news,
which could be modified, if necessary, by the
manner of phrasing the remainder of the message. This code was used only for the transmission of matter which the censor would not
pass; routine news, to which no objection could
be made, was sent in plain English. All of these
messages were cabled to Key West, where they
were relayed to New York.
Early in January, 1898, there were serious
riots in Havana following the farcical inauguration of the so-called autonomous government
through which Captain-General Blanco hoped
to restore peace, but which was as distasteful
to most of the Spaniards as it was to the Cubans.
The Spanish residents of Cuba had no sympathy
with Blanco's pacific policy, which they construed to be an evidence of weakness. They
preferred the more brutal but also more effective methods of Weyler, and their disapproval
[260]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


suites were separated by old-fashioned sliding
doors which "leaked" so all that was said by
Congosto and General Lee was overheard.
Congosto, who was next in rank to the captaingeneral, asserted that the disturbances were the
work of Spaniards who were opposed to the
pacificatory policy of General Blanco, and urged
that the United States should support this
policy, as, according to his belief, it promised
peace. He told of some anti-American threats
which had been heard in the mobs, but said they
came from irresponsible persons and no attention should be paid to them. Blanco, he said,
had ordered into the city a force of regular troops
which would quickly suppress the disorders.
The only danger, as he saw it, was that an
American war-ship might be sent down to complicate matters. This, he said, in the disturbed
situation, might so enrage the Spanish element
that really serious results would follow, and he
begged that such a possibility be prevented.
"As matters stand now," he said, "we can
control the situation without difficulty, and I
pledge you not only my honor, but my life, that
not a hair on the head of a single American will
be injured. But I implore you not to allow a
war-ship to be sent here."
"I believe you," replied General Lee, "and
you need fear no American interference. No
warship will be sent here unless I ask for it, and
at present I have no such intention."
[262 ]




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The plan could have been worked without any
trouble, for a window in the consul-general's
bedroom opened on the roof of the adjoining
building, from which escape would have been
easy; but, after it had been much talked about
in secret for several days and all of the details
arranged, it was abandoned for the same reason that a scheme to murder General Weyler
had been given up some months before: it
was feared it would have "a bad moral effect."
During all of the time he was in Havana,
Weyler went nearly every evening to the Cafe
Jerezano, at the corner of Virtudes Street and
the Prado, where he sat out on the sidewalk in
plain view of the passing crowds for several
hours. He was usually accompanied by only
one aide, which proved that he had no lack of
personal courage. At about eleven o'clock every
night he drove down Obispo Street to the palace.
Obispo is one of the narrowest streets in the city,
and it would have been a simple matter to drop
a bomb on the captain-general's carriage from
the roof of almost any building on either side of
it, with every assurance that it would do its
work well and that the man who threw it would
escape. Weyler knew that plots against his life
were constantly being hatched; but he seemed
to have no fear that any one of them would
succeed. One night a bomb was set off in his
palace by a daring young Cuban named Armando
[Eo41




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


Camera received, but no plates. Requires special
size. Send by next boat.
This was plain enough to the cable editor of
the Herald, but the agent at Key West, through
whose hands all messages passed, jumped at the
conclusion that it was a cryptogram, though it
carried no code word, and, through sheer inquisitiveness, attempted to decipher it. After
wrestling with it for several hours he evolved
the wonderful and momentous translation that
an attempt had been made by Spaniards to
assassinate General Lee. This was soon whispered around Key West, and in a few hours it
was reported through government channels to
Washington, where it was at once communicated
to Assistant Secretary of State William R. Day.
Despite the fact that the Herald printed no
story of the alleged attempt at murder, and that
nothing concerning it was received from General
Lee, full credence was placed in the report by the
Washington authorities, and at a meeting of the
cabinet on the following day it was decided to
send the battle-ship Maine to Havana at once
"on a visit of courtesy." This precipitate
action, based on an unconfirmed rumor, can be
explained in no other way than on the theory
that the President and his advisers temporarily
lost their heads. They supposed General Lee
either unduly minimized the importance of the
incident or had been prevented from sending
[266]




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ing of the 24th a torpedo-boat was rushed from
Key West to the Tortugas with orders to the
Maine to proceed to Havana at once "to make
a friendly visit for the protection of American
citizens, and to afford them an asylum if necessary5.
The first word of this reached Havana on the
afternoon of the 24th, through the following
despatch, sent by the Herald to its correspondent:
Kindly send story and pictures ordered on food
supply. We want it for the main sheet within a few
days.
Translated, the code part of this message,
which was confined to the first sentence, read:
"A United States war-ship has been ordered to
Havana." The second sentence explained that
it was the Maine, and that she could be expected
within a few days. Caldwell hunted up General
Lee and told him of the information he had received. Lee did not believe it. He said he had
not asked for a war-ship, and he was sure none
would be sent without a request from him.
"Your informant is mistaken," he said. "We
may have the Maine or some other ship here one
of these days, but certainly not for the present."
Caldwell, however, expressed full confidence in
the correctness of his despatch. As General
Lee was dressing the next morning he was astounded to see the Maine steaming into the harbor. Going down to the dining-room, he found
[i68]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


she was in complete readiness to fire explosive
shells or a salute with blank cartridges. A pilot
met her off the Morro and guided her to the
buoy at which she was destroyed three weeks
later. When she had made fast, salutes were
exchanged and every requirement of naval
etiquette was complied with; but the ceremonies ended there.
It is not for an American and an ardent Cuban
sympathizer to question the wisdom of all of the
precautions that were taken by Captain Sigsbee;
but at this late day it involves no lack of patriotism to admit that there was some foundation
for the Spanish contention that, as it was well
known that none of the guns which he so carefully located could be brought to bear on a ship
in the harbor, they savored somewhat of swashbuckling. It cannot be denied that the Maine's
whole attitude was threatening rather than conciliatory; no doubt this was partly, and perhaps
largely, due to the vague orders that were sent
in such a hurry to her commander, for they were
well calculated to cause apprehension.
So far as the officials and the greater part of
the population were concerned, there never was
a more unwelcome visitor; and the impression
created by the manner of the battle-ship's arrival
was heightened by what followed. The first of
her officers who went ashore devoted themselves
to inquiring into the condition of things in
Havana, from  a purely military standpoint.
L270 ]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


uninvited and unannounced, were the last people on earth who would have injured the Maine
or allowed her to be injured. They recognized
that they were responsible for her safety. American intervention was the one thing they were
most anxious to avert-and they never were quite
so solicitous in that regard as just at that time,
when they professed to believe, and probably
really did believe, that the suppression of the
revolt was close at hand-and they knew that the
surest way to bring it about was to show some
discourtesy to the white war-ship. To suppose
that the Spanish element which was opposed to
General Blanco could have placed a mine under
the Maine and set it off without the knowledge
of the port authorities is ridiculous. Beyond
that, our spy system within the palace of the
captain-general and throughout the Spanish
organization was so complete that, if the Spaniards had had any hand in the historic tragedy
or possessed any knowledge concerning it, the
facts certainly would have been reported to us.
As to the exact cause of the disaster I do not
assume to speak with authority, but my belief
is that it was due either to an explosion of her
boilers, which set off her magazines, or to deterioration of the powder for the forward ten and
six inch guns, which produced a spontaneous explosion. The Maine carried the old brown powder, which was more liable to disintegration than
the smokeless powder now in use; and at that
[272]




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which caused much severe criticism, and both
were regarded as hoodoo ships. To what extent, if any, the structural shortcomings of the
Maine contributed to her destruction I do not
know; but my theory is that she happened to
be the first big war-ship to suffer from powder
decomposition. Several years later the magazine
of a French battle-ship blew up from the same
cause while she was lying in dry-dock, with no
one aboard, and there have been other similar
instances. As a result of these experiences
greater precautions are now taken on all naval
vessels, and the moment powder shows signs of
deterioration it is thrown overboard.
The inquisitive blunder which caused the
Maine to be sent to Havana was not the only
fortuitous mishap that advanced the cause of
the revolutionists. It was through another inquiring accident that the famous De Lome letter,
which would have resulted in American intervention without the resentment born of destruction of Captain Sigsbee's historic ship, fell
into the hands of the Cubans. This pleasing
but unexpected development of a war that was
filled with surprises has always been surrounded
with mystery; but there is now no reason why
the story should not be told.
The letter was written to Jose Canalejas, formerely minister of justice, and in recent years
the powerful premier of Spain. In the fall of
[274 1




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
rabble; and, besides, a low politician." Recognizing the importance of this declaration and
the use to which it might be put, Escoto slipped
the letter into his pocket a second before Canalejas re-entered the room. Fortunately it had
been sent in a plain envelope, so it had escaped
the notice of Canalejas, and he finished with his
correspondence and returned to Madrid with
no suspicion that his most interesting communication had been intercepted. That letter was
the only one he received which would have been
of any value to the revolutionists; whether it
was Providence, Fate, or Old Nick that placed
it in Escoto's hands, out of the hundreds that
were on the table in front of him, in the single
brief period that he was unobserved, one guess
is as good as another.
Escoto told the revolutionary committee in
Havana of the prize he had captured, but refused to surrender it to them; he insisted on
delivering the letter to Mr. Palma in New York.
This involved some delay, for it was known that
Escoto had acted temporarily as secretary for
Canalejas, and while he was not regarded as an
active sympathizer with the rebels, it would
have aroused the suspicion of the secret police
if he had attempted to leave Cuba at once.
After enough time had elapsed so that his departure was unnoticed, he went to New York
and proudly presented the stolen letter-the
fruit of a most justifiable theft-to Mr. Palma.
[ 761




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monious departure from   Washington.  Instructions were at once cabled to Stewart L.
Woodford, the American minister at Madrid, to
demand an instant apology from Spain for the
words and actions of her diplomatic representative. This apology, though repeatedly called
for in sharp notes, was not forthcoming until
February 14th, and even at that late day it was
purely perfunctory. There is reason to believe
that this disclaimer would not have been accepted, and that further exchanges of notes on
the subject would have led to a breaking-off of
diplomatic relations with Spain, and the intervention for which the Cubans had been fighting
and waiting; but the next day the Maine was
blown up, and De Lome was forgotten.
Young Escoto, who had rendered his country
such a valuable service, was subsequently disgraced, though probably through no fault of
his own. He was appointed to a clerkship in the
department of public instruction, in which a lot
of crookedness was discovered during the second
American intervention. Escoto,though his friends
were certain of his innocence, was made the
scapegoat, and ran away to Europe, where he
remained until the general amnesty proclamation
of President Jose Miguel Gomez left him free
to return.
There had always been a mistaken belief,
which was preached and complained of by the
[278]




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ingly Mr. Palma, Dr. Castillo, General Nufiez,
and one or two others put on their best black
clothes and attended the following meeting of
the committee. They sat around with long faces,
but spoke never a word. Mr. Croker reported
the unexpended balance, and on his motion it
was donated to the Cubans "for the aid of the
sick and wounded," which was the stereotyped
form for all such gifts.
It was the Cubans living in the United States
who furnished most of the sinews of war. The
patriotism they displayed and the sacrifices they
made would be a credit to any people in any age
of the world's history. Fully half of the revolutionary fund came from the clubs of Cuban
cigar-makers that had been organized by Jose
Marti in all cities having Cuban colonies. Their
members were pledged to contribute ten per
cent. of their weekly earnings; but most of
them gave more than that, many as much as a
quarter and a third, and even half of their wages.
Tribute amounting to several hundred thousand
dollars was levied on Spanish plantation-owners in
Cuba; those who paid their taxes promptly, as
all good citizens should, were not molested, but
most of those who disregarded the assessment
notices saw their fields of sugar-cane go up in
smoke when they were ready to be cut.
In one way and another, Mr. Huau, the delegate at Jacksonville, contributed his whole fortune of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to
[2801




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


killed in the Ten Years' War, and by her request
the identity of the giver was not revealed until
after her death, several years later. Her husband, Pedro Estavis, was appointed minister of
justice in the cabinet of General Wood, in recognition of his wife's generosity and his own unassailable integrity. He was subsequently elected
vice-president of Cuba, but resigned soon afterward on account of a disagreement with President Palma.
Bonds of the Cuban republic were offered for
sale, away below par, all during the war; but
few of them found purchasers. They were
largely used, however, as part payment in the
purchase of arms, at from twenty-five to sixty
cents on the dollar. With the final establishment of the republic these bonds became as good
as gold, and those who had accepted them profited proportionately, while many clever financiers
regretted their failure to buy them when they
were offered at bargain prices.




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


smuggling of a very different kind from that
with which I was familiar. In one scheme,
which was most persistently urged on me, it
was suggested that I reverse the contraband
route by surreptitiously importing Chinamen into
the United States from Cuba in wholesale quantities, but at retail rates.
The plan, as it was presented with more or less
eloquence, provided that I was to be given command of a smart schooner with which to carry
cargoes of Celestials from an obscure point on
the south coast of Cuba to an equally remote
place on the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico.
The shipments were to be assembled and placed
on board by my proposed partner, and, as Chinamen were free to come and go as they pleased
in Cuba, there would have been no difficulty on
that point. While I was to advise on every
move that was made, I was to be directly responsible only, as in the old filibustering days, for
the navigation of the ship and the landing of
the cargoes. Our passengers were to be met by
representatives of the Chinese syndicate in New
York, who would supply them with forged papers giving them the right to reside in the
United States and attend to their distribution.
Our contract would be completed the moment
they set foot on shore.
I was to be paid several hundred dollars-I
have forgotten exactly how much, but I believe
it was three hundred dollars-for every China[284]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


affairs in the South when the Cubans were fighting for their freedom. He told me he had been
approached by a Frenchman who, to protect him
from any embarrassment, will be known here
only as Monsieur X, who wished to secure the
release of Captain Dreyfus by kidnapping him.
Monsieur X represented a party of wealthy
French Jews who, despairing of ever securing a
fair trial for the famous exile, had raised a fund
of one million dollars with which to procure his
release from his revolting confinement. They
proposed that he be landed in the United States,
incognito, of course, and go to some quiet place
where he could live in peace and comfort pending
the outcome of their continued efforts toward
his vindication. The reward for his release was
to be paid when he was landed on American soil.
Monsieur X had come to Mr. Huau through
channels which carried confidence; but, being
a prudent business man, the Cuban patriot had
investigated the Frenchman thoroughly before
sending for me, and satisfied himself that the
facts were as they had been stated. Mr. Huau
knew the names of at least some of the men
who had contributed to the million-dollar fund;
but I did not ask him for them, as his guarantee
that the proposition was genuine was all I
needed.
From what he had heard of my activities
Monsieur X believed I was the man to plan and
command the expedition; but before making
[286]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
map of Devil's Island and full information concerning the conditions of the captain's confinement; the number and habits of his guards; the
hours at which the men who were supposed to
keep their eyes on him, day and night, were
changed; the paths patrolled by the sentries, and
the location of all the buildings and the character of the ground around them. This enabled
us to attack the problem with exact knowledge
of the situation. The detachment of troops on
the island at that time numbered less than fifty
men, and it was considered in Paris that even
that small force was larger than was really
necessary.
It had been stated in the press that Dreyfus
was to be shot if so much as an attempt was
made to rescue him. We had reason to believe
that this report was circulated only to discourage
any activity in that direction, and that no such
order had ever been issued. It was true, however, that the commanding officer on the island
had instructions to shoot the captain rather
than to permit him to escape or be rescued.
This made it necessary for us to strike so suddenly and decisively that Dreyfus would be safe
in our hands before the command for his execution could be given and carried out. Anything
like a secretive rescue was out of the question.
What was required was a quick and unexpected
blow delivered by a force large enough to take
command of the situation in a moment, or, at
[ 88 ]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


sition; but our men were to be prepared for a
battle.
In casting about for a suitable vessel I found
just what we wanted in a private yacht that
was laid up at Charleston, South Carolina. She
belonged to a New York man who had tired of
her, and was open for charter or sale. She was
a beautiful craft, two hundred feet over all, and
with a draught of a little less than fifteen feet, and
could do nineteen knots an hour or better, which
was fast enough to keep clear of any French warships stationed at Cayenne, French Guiana, or
Martinique that might try to follow us. She
could not carry coal enough to take her to the
island and back again; but that was not an objection, as we had to have another ship anyway.
I proposed to charter her, in the name of a friend
of Mr. Huau who was willing to enter into the
conspiracy to that extent, without knowing or
suspecting what the conspiracy was, and put all
of my own men aboard of her, so that, with her
mission accomplished, there would be no talk
of what we had done. Frank Pagluchi, the
Cuban revolutionary marine expert, was to have
been her chief engineer; and he was actually
engaged to serve in that capacity. After Captain Dreyfus had been rescued the yacht was to
have been turned over to the man in whose name
she had been chartered, and he and Mr. Huau
were to have gone on a cruise until the end of the
charter period.
[290]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


might have returned to my old occupation of a
Hell Gate pilot; but, on account of my age and
rheumatism, which had resulted from much exposure, I preferred an easy berth in a warm
climate. So I ran the steamship Lassells in the
fruit trade between New York and Jamaica for
nearly three years. During the latter part of
this time Cuba elected her own officials, headed
by President Palma, and they were preparing
to take over the government.
The last thing that was in my mind was to ask
the Cubans for anything in the shape of a reward
for my services to their cause. I much preferred
to leave it entirely to them to act on the promises
they had made, when they saw fit. I had not
even intended to visit them during the celebration incident to the attainment of their independence; but it happened that I was sent to
Havana in May, 1902-in which month President
Palma was inaugurated and the government
transferred to the Cubans-to bring the wreck
of the steamship Banes to New York.
Mr. Palma, hearing that I was in the city,
sent for me and made me promise to return to
Cuba as soon as possible. He said one of his
first acts as President would be to send a message
to Congress recommending that my services to
the revolution be memorialized; and he intimated, if he did not say so in so many words,
that as soon as a navy could be established I
would be put at its head. In the mean time, he
[sl]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID


plied Rubens, seriously. "Patriotism is mankind's most latent virtue. It is displayed only
in a crisis. Then it becomes dormant again.
Cuba has passed through a great crisis, and the
reaction will be just as great. That is the law
of human nature. So long as the war was on,
every man who fought for Cuba was as good as
any other man. With the acquisition of what
they fought for, every man will return to the
thing he was doing before he enlisted in the war.
The demagogue will return to his mob, the outlaw to his violence and crime, and every man who
does not get what he considers his share of the
spoils of conquest will become your active
enemy. It is all right to-day; perhaps it will
be all right to-morrow; but after that-who
knows? Your people are still ignorant of selfgovernment. They have got to learn the sovereignty of the popular will, without which no free
government can be maintained. The very richness of the island will prove its greatest danger
-there is wealth enough to arouse the lust of
every ambitious leader. They cannot all be satisfied. I hope it may prove that I am mistaken,
but I fear there are still dark days ahead for
Cuba. I do not congratulate you, but I most
earnestly wish you well."
Mr. Palma vigorously combated this view,
but he was unable to shake Mr. Rubens's convictions. Rubens contended that the Americans
should have retained supervisory control of the
294]




A CAPTAIN UNAFRAID
apparently ended. But, appreciating the difficulties which he soon encountered and the complexities of a new government by a people who
had known nothing but despotism until a short
time before, I did not blame him, nor do I now,
for his inability to keep his altogether voluntary
promises.
Subsequently a law was passed, and became
operative during the second American occupation, requiring that all pilots should be Cuban
citizens. It was suggested that I comply with
it to retain my post; but I refused to surrender
my American citizenship. Some of the Cubans
who had served with me during the revolution
reported the facts to Governor Magoon, without my knowledge, and, by his direction, a new
license was issued to me, in which the requirement of Cuban citizenship was waived.
And so I am still a pilot. The work is not
hard, for piloting at Havana is as simple as
transporting in New York Harbor at slack
water, and I like the Cuban climate. I have no
regrets, and cherish no disappointments. If I
have not acquired a great deal of money, I have
accumulated that greater treasure-a fund of
satisfactory memories. I have done the things
which came to my hand in the best way that
I knew how; and that, after all, is ambition's
best fulfilment.
THE END


MAR S    1922




THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
DATE DUE.._ ' a-.._ Fm,.,-.wI" II



UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 01919 9614




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