otisMAJOR-GENERAL ELWELL S. OTIS
MAJOR-GENERAL ELWELL S. OTIS
The territory which passes under the control of our government by the above treaty of peace has a combined area of about 168,000 square miles, equal to nine good States. It all lies within the tropics, where hitherto not an acre of our country has extended; and, for that reason, its acquisition is of the greatest commercial significance. These islands produce all tropical fruits, plants, spices, timbers, etc. Their combined population is upwards of 10,000,000 people, and among this vast number there are few manufactories of any kind. They are consumers or prospective consumers of all manufactured goods; they require the products of the temperate zone, and in return everything they produce is marketable in our country.
The Spanish forces withdrew from Cuba, December 31, 1898, and, on the following day, the Stars and Stripes was hoisted over Havana. The change of sovereignties in Porto Rico took place without trouble, but there has been some disturbance in Cuba, and it is evident that considerable time must elapse before peace will be fully restored and a stable government established in the island.
Though the war with Spain was closed, serious trouble broke out in the Philippines. Aguinaldo, who had headed most of the rebellions against Spain during the later years, refused to acknowledge the authority of the United States, and, rallying thousands of Filipinos around him, set on foot what he claimed was a war of independence. Our government sent a strong force of regulars and volunteers thither, all of whom acquitted themselves with splendid heroism and bravery, and defeated the rebels repeatedly, capturing strongholds one after the other, and, in fact, driving everything resistlessly before them. The fighting was of the sharpest kind, and our troops had many killed and wounded, though that of the enemy was tenfold greater. All such struggles, however, when American valor and skill are arrayed on one side, can have but one result; and, animated by our sense of duty, which demanded that a firm, equitable, and just government should be established in the Philippines, this beneficent purpose was certain to be attained in the end.
On March 3, 1899, President McKinley nominated Rear-Admiral George Dewey to the rank of full admiral, his commission to date from March 2d, and the Senate immediately and unanimously confirmed the nomination, which had been so richly earned. This hero, as modest as he is great, remained in the Philippines to complete his herculean task, instead of seizing the first opportunity to return home and receive the overwhelming honors which his countrymen were eagerly waiting to show him. Finally, when his vast work was virtually completed and his health showed evidence of the terrific and long-continued strain to which it had been subjected, he turned over his command, by direction of the government, to Rear-Admiral Watson, and, proceeding by a leisurely course, reached home in the autumn of 1899. The honors showered upon him by his grateful and admiring countrymen proved not only his clear title to the foremost rank among the greatest naval heroes of ancient and modern times, but attested the truth that the United States is not ungrateful, and that there is no reward too exalted for her to bestow upon those who have worthily won it.
olympiaADMIRAL DEWEY'S FLAGSHIP THE "OLYMPIA."
ADMIRAL DEWEY'S FLAGSHIP THE "OLYMPIA."
POPULAR COMMANDERS IN THE FILIPINO WAR.
commander(clockwise from top-left)GEN. ARTHUR MacARTHUR,GEN. CHARLES KING,GEN. FRED. FUNSTON, GEN HENRY W. LAWTON.
(clockwise from top-left)GEN. ARTHUR MacARTHUR,GEN. CHARLES KING,GEN. FRED. FUNSTON, GEN HENRY W. LAWTON.
The Islands of Hawaii—Their Inhabitants and Products—City of Honolulu—History of Cuba—The Ten Years' War—The Insurrection of 1895-98—Geography and Productions of Cuba—Its Climate—History of Porto Rico—Its People and Productions—San Juan and Ponce—Location, Discovery, and History of the Philippines—Insurrections of the Filipinos—City of Manila—Commerce—Philippine Productions—Climate and Volcanoes—Dewey at Manila—The Ladrone Islands—Conclusion.
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS "THE PARADISE OF THE PACIFIC."
The annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States, by a joint vote of Congress, July 7, 1898, marks a new era in the history of our country. It practically sounded the death-knell of the conservative doctrine of non-expansion beyond our own natural physical boundaries. The only precedent approaching this act, in our history, is the annexation of Texas. The Louisiana Territory, Florida, and Alaska were acquired by purchase; California, New Mexico, and a part of Colorado were obtained by cession from Mexico; Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Idaho by treaty with Great Britain. Texas alone was annexed. The fact, however, that it was a republic is the only circumstance which makes its case analogous to that of Hawaii. Texas lay between two large nations, and was obliged to seek union with one of them. It was within our own continent and inhabited largely by our own people. Hawaii marks our first advance into foreign lands, and ranges America for the first time among the nations whose policy is that of expansion, by territorial extensions, over the globe.
houseNATIVE GRASS HOUSE, HAWAII.
NATIVE GRASS HOUSE, HAWAII.
Hawaii is called the "Paradise of the Pacific," and there is little doubt that its climate, fertility and healthfulness justify the name. It is one of the few spots upon earth where one can almost, to use a slang phrase, "touch the button" and obtain any kind of weather he desires. Mark Twain's suggestion to those who go to these islands to find a congenial clime is about as practical as it is humorous—"Select your climate, mark your thermometer at the temperature desired, and climb until the mercury stops there." Everyone who visits Hawaii is charmed with the country, and never forgets its novelty, stupendous and delightful scenery, clear atmosphere, gorgeous sunlight, and profusion of fruits and flowers.
"No alien land in all the world," writes Mr. Clemens, "could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a life-time, as that has done. Other things leave me, but that abides. Other things change, but that remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing; its summer seas flash in the sun; the pulsing of its surf beats in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud rack; I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitudes; I can hear the splash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago."
DISCOVERY AND LOCATION.
Captain Cook discovered the islands in January, 1778, and named them the Sandwich Islands, after Lord Sandwich; but the native name, Hawaii, is more generally used. There is good evidence that Juan Gaetano, in the year 1555—223 years before Cook's visit—landed upon their shores. Old Spanish charts and the traditions of the natives bear out this theory, but they were not made known to the world until Cook visited them. It is popularly believed that the original inhabitants of Hawaii came from New Zealand, though that island is some 4,000 miles southwest of them. The physical appearance of the people is very similar, and their languages are so much alike that a native Hawaiian and a native New Zealander, meeting for the first time, can carry on a conversation. Their ideas of the Deity and some of their religious customs are nearly the same. That the islands have been peopled for a long time is proven by the fact that human bones are found under lava beds and coral reefs where geologists declare they have lain for at least thirteen hundred years.
There are eight inhabited islands in the archipelago, Hawaii, Maui, Kahoolawi, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau, comprising an area of 6,700 square miles, a little less than that of the State of New Jersey, and about five hundred miles greater than the combined areas of Rhode Island and Connecticut. They extend from northwest to southeast, over a distance of about 380 miles, the several islands being separated by channels varying in width from six to sixty miles. They lie entirely within the tropics, not far from a direct line between San Francisco and Japan, 2,080 miles from San Francisco, which is nearer to them than any other point of land, except one of the Carolines. The largest and most southern island is Hawaii, which has given its name to the group.
flagRAISING THE AMERICAN FLAG IN HONOLULU, AUGUST 12, 1898.The cut in the corner shows the Royal Palace formerly occupied by the Hawaiian Kings.
RAISING THE AMERICAN FLAG IN HONOLULU, AUGUST 12, 1898.The cut in the corner shows the Royal Palace formerly occupied by the Hawaiian Kings.
THE HIGHEST AND LARGEST VOLCANOES.
The entire archipelago is of volcanic origin, but there are no active craters to be found at the present time, except two, on the island of Hawaii. Mauna Loa is the highest volcano in the world, being nearly 14,000 feet above the sea. It has an immense crater; but, while it still sends forth smoke and has a lake of molten lava at the bottom, there have been no eruptions for a number of years. Kilauea, the largest active volcano on the globe, is about sixteen miles from Mauna Loa, on one of its foothills, 4,000 feet above the sea, and is in a constant state of activity. Its last great eruption occurred in 1894. This volcano was described by the missionary Ellis in the year 1823, and hundreds of tourists visit it every year. Its crater is nine miles in circumference and several hundred feet deep. Under the conduct of competent guides the tourists descend into the crater and walk over the cool lava in places, while near them the hot flame and molten lava are spouting to the height of hundreds of feet.
The largest extinct volcano in the archipelago is on the island of Maui, the bottom of the crater measuring sixteen square miles. All of these stupendous volcanic mountains rise so gently on the western side that horsemen easily ride to their summits.
INHABITANTS OF THE ISLANDS.
When Cook visited Hawaii, he found the islands inhabited, according to his estimate, by 400,000 natives. Forty years later when the census was taken there were 142,000. These diminished one-half during the next fifty years, and the native population of the islands in 1897 was only 31,019. The total population by the last census, when the islands became a part of the United States, was 109,020, made up, in addition to the natives mentioned, of 24,407 Japanese, 21,616 Chinese, 12,191 Portuguese, and 3,086 Americans. The remainder were half-castes from foreign intermarriage with the natives, together with a small representation from England, Germany, and other European countries.
girlsHULA DANCING GIRLS, HAWAII.
HULA DANCING GIRLS, HAWAII.
That the original Hawaiians must soon become extinct as a pure race is evident, though they have never been persecuted or maltreated. They are a handsome, strong-looking people, with a rich dark complexion, jet black eyes, wavy hair, full voluptuous lips, and teeth of snowy whiteness; but they are constitutionally weak, easily contract and quickly succumb to disease, and the only hope of perpetuating their blood seems to lie in mixing it by intermarriage with other races.
OLD TIMES IN HAWAII.
Prior to 1795, all the islands had separate kings, but in that and the following year the great king of Hawaii, Kamehameha, with cannon that he procured from Vancouver's ships, assaulted and subjugated all the surrounding kings, and since that time the islands have been under one government. Previous to this, the natives had been at war, according to their traditions, for three hundred years. The fierceness of their hand-to-hand conflicts, as described by their historians, has probably not been surpassed by those of any other people in the world. The four descendants of Kamehameha reigned until 1872, when the last of his line died childless. A new king was elected, who died within a year, and another was then elected by the people. It was to this last line that Queen Liliuokalani belonged, and she was deposed by the revolution of 1893, led by the American and European residents upon the islands. These patriots set up a provisional government and made repeated application for admission to the United States, the tender of the islands being finally accepted by a joint vote of Congress on July 7, 1898, since which time the Hawaiian Islands have been a part of our country.
The manners and customs of the native Hawaiians are most interesting, but space forbids a description of them here. Their religion was a gross form of idolatry, with many gods. Human sacrifice was freely practiced. They deified dead chiefs and worshiped their bones. The great king, Kamehameha I., though an idolater, was a most progressive monarch, and invited Vancouver, who went there in 1794, taking swine, cattle, sheep, and horses, together with oranges and other valuable plants, to bring over teachers and missionaries to teach his people "the white man's religion."
THE WORK OF AMERICAN MISSIONARIES.
But it was not until 1820, after the death of the great king, that the first missionaries arrived, and they came from America. The year previous, in 1819, Kamehameha II. had destroyed many of the temples and idols and forbidden idol worship in the islands; consequently, when the missionaries arrived they beheld the unprecedented spectacle of a nation without a religion. The natives were rapidly converted to Christianity. It was these American missionaries who first reduced the Hawaiian language to writing, established schools and taught the natives. As a result of their work, the Hawaiians are the most generally educated people, in the elementary sense, in the world. There is hardly a person in the islands, above the age of eight years, who cannot read and write. In spite of education, however, many of the ancient superstitions still exist, and some of the old stone temples are yet standing. What the United States will do with these heathen temples remains to be seen. The natives revere them as relics of their savage history, and as such they may be preserved.
churchCHURCH IN HONOLULU, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.Built of lava stone. Seating capacity about 3000.
CHURCH IN HONOLULU, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.Built of lava stone. Seating capacity about 3000.
Aside from the horrors of superstitions, the Hawaiians lead a happy life, full of amusements of various kinds on the land and water—for Hawaiian men, women and children live much of their time in the water. Infants are often taught the art of swimming before they can walk. The surf riding or swimming of the natives astonished Captain Cook more than any of their remarkable performances. The time selected was when a storm was tossing the waves high and the surf was furious. Then the men and women would dive through the surf, with narrow boards about nine inches wide and eight feet long, and, swimming a mile or more out to sea, mount on the crest of a huge billow, and sitting, kneeling or standing, with wild gesticulations, ride over the waves and breakers like gods or demons of the storm. This practice has now ceased to be indulged in. But the swimming of the Kanaka boys, who flock around incoming steamers, and dive after and catch coins which tourists throw into the water, like so many ducks diving after corn, shows what a degree of perfection the natatorial art has attained among the native Hawaiians. Sledging down the mountain sides, boxing, and tournament riding are other popular amusements; and, with the exception of boxing, the women compete with the men in the amusements.
PRODUCTS AND COMMERCE.
Sugar is king in Hawaii as wheat is in the Northwest. In 1890 there were 19,000 laborers—nearly one-fifth of the total population—engaged on sugar plantations. Ten tons to the acre have been raised on the richest lands. The average is over four tons per acre, but it requires from eighteen to twenty months for a crop to mature. Rice growing is also an important industry. It is raised in marsh lands, and nearly all the labor is done by Chinese, though they do not own the land. Coffee is happily well suited to the soil that is unfitted for sugar and rice, and the Hawaiian coffee is particularly fine, combining the strength of the Java with a delicate flavor of its own.
Diversified farming is coming more into vogue. Fruit raising will undoubtedly become one of the most important branches when fast steamers are provided for its transportation. Sheep and cattle raising must also prove profitable, since the animals require little feeding and need no housing.
"Almost all kinds of vegetables and fruits can be raised, many of those belonging to the temperate zones thriving on the elevated mountain slopes. Fruit is abundant; the guava grows wild in all the islands, and were the manufacture of jelly made from it carried on, on a large scale, the product could doubtless be exported with profit. Both bananas and pineapples are prolific, and there are many fruits and vegetables, which as yet have been raised only for local trade, which would, if cultivated for export, bring in rich returns.
"Of the total exports from the Hawaiian Islands in 1895, the United States received 99.04 per cent., and in the same year 79.04 per cent. of the imports to the islands were from the United States. The total value of the sugar sent to the United States in 1896 was $14,932,010; of rice, $194,903; of coffee, $45,444; and of bananas, $121,273."
THE CHIEF CITY.
Honolulu, the capital city, is to Hawaii what Havana is to Cuba, or better, what Manila is to the Philippine Islands. Here are concentrated the business, political and social forces that control the life and progress of the entire archipelago. This city of 30,000 inhabitants is situated on the south coast of Oahu, and extends up the Nuuanu Valley. It is well provided with street-car lines—which also run to a bathing resort four miles outside the city—a telephone system, electric lights, numerous stores, churches and schools, a library of over 10,000 volumes, and frequent steam communication with San Francisco. There are papers published in the English, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese languages, and a railroad is being built, of which thirty miles along the coast are already completed. Honolulu has also a well-equipped fire department and public water-works. The residence portions of the city are well laid out, the houses, many of which are very handsome, being surrounded by gardens kept green throughout the year. The climate is mild and even, and the city is a delightful and a beautiful place of residence. Hawaii is peculiarly an agricultural country, and Honolulu gains its importance solely as a distributing centre or depot of supplies. Warehouses, lumber yards, and commercial houses abound, but there is a singular absence of mills and factories and productive establishments. There are no metals or minerals, or as yet, textile plants or food plants, whose manufacture is undertaken in this unique city.
plantationSUGAR CANE PLANTATION, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.About one-fifth of the entire population is engaged in sugar culture. The average product is about three tons per acre
SUGAR CANE PLANTATION, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.About one-fifth of the entire population is engaged in sugar culture. The average product is about three tons per acre
The Hawaiian Islands are, without question, on the threshold of a great industrial era, fraught with most potent results to the prosperity and development of that land. Its climate is delightful and healthful, and its soil so fertile that it will easily support 5,000,000 people.
PROMINENT SPANIARDS IN 1898
spaniards(clockwise from top-left)SENOR MONTERO RIOSPresident of the Spanish Peace Commission whose painful duty required him to sign away his country's colonial possessions.GENERAL RAMON BLANCOWho succeeded Weyler as Captain-General of Cuba in 1897. He was formerly Governor-General of the Philippine Islands.SAGASTAPremier of Spain during the Spanish-American War.ADMIRAL CERVERACommander of Spanish Fleet at Santiago.
(clockwise from top-left)SENOR MONTERO RIOSPresident of the Spanish Peace Commission whose painful duty required him to sign away his country's colonial possessions.GENERAL RAMON BLANCOWho succeeded Weyler as Captain-General of Cuba in 1897. He was formerly Governor-General of the Philippine Islands.SAGASTAPremier of Spain during the Spanish-American War.ADMIRAL CERVERACommander of Spanish Fleet at Santiago.
CUBA, "THE CHILD OF OUR ADOPTION."
Although Cuba is not a part or a possession of the United States, it has since the war with Spain, in 1898, come under the protection of this government, and is, therefore, entitled to a place in this volume. In the hand of Providence, this island became the doorway to America. It was here that Columbus landed, October 28, 1492. True, he touched earlier at one of the smaller islands to the north; but it was merely a halting before pushing on to Cuba. "Juana" Columbus called the island, in honor of Isabella's infant son. Afterward it was successively known as Fernandina, Santiago, and Ave Maria; but the simple natives, who were there to the number of 350,000, called itCooba, and this name prevailed over the Spanish titles, as the island has finally prevailed over Spanish domination, and it has come under the protection of America with its Indian name, slightly changed toCuba, remaining as the sole and only heritage we have of the simple aborigines who have utterly perished from the face of the earth under Spanish cruelty.
tombTOMB OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUSIN THE CATHEDRAL AT HAVANA.The ashes of the great discoverer wereremoved from this tomb to Spainin December, 1898.
TOMB OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUSIN THE CATHEDRAL AT HAVANA.The ashes of the great discoverer wereremoved from this tomb to Spainin December, 1898.
In 1494 Columbus visited Cuba a second time, and once again in 1502. In 1511 Diego Columbus, the son of the great discoverer, with a colony of between three and four hundred Spaniards, came, and in 1514 he founded the towns of Santiago and Trinidad. Five years later, in 1519, the present capital Havana, orHabana, was founded. The French reduced the city in 1538, practically demolishing the whole town. Under the governor, De Soto, it was rebuilt and fortified, the famous Morro Castle and the Punta, which are still standing, being built at that early date.
THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
The natives, whom Columbus found in Cuba, were agreeable in feature, and so amiable in disposition that they welcomed the white man with open arms, and, besides contributing food, readily gave up their treasures to please the Spaniards. Unlike the warlike cannibal tribes of the Lesser Antilles, known as the Caribs, they lived in comparative peace with one another, and had a religion which recognized the Supreme Being. Columbus held several conferences with these simple natives, who numbered, according to his estimate, from 350,000 to half a million souls, and his associations and dealings with them on his first visit were always friendly and of a mutually pleasing nature. But when he returned to Spain he left soldiers, who brutally maltreated them, until the natives rose in revolt and exterminated every white man. Even Columbus himself, in 1494, had to fight the Indians at the landing-place.
A salubrious climate, a fertile soil, and simple wants rendered it unnecessary for the native to do hard work; and although it is well proven that he did mine copper and traded in it with the mound builders of Florida, yet the native was not accustomed to arduous toil, and rebelled against it. This, perhaps, was unfortunate, for the perpetuity of his race at that time depended upon this very quality. The Spanish "friend" who came to the island was incapable of work. He neither would nor could, under his ethics of self-respect, abase himself to labor, so he proceeded to enslave the native to labor for him. The Cuban rebelled, and fled before the superior Spanish weapons from the coasts to the mountain fastnesses of the interior.
EXTERMINATION OF THE NATIVES.
Then began that cruel and long-continued war of extermination, of which history has recorded the most shocking details. The conquest was begun under Diego Columbus, the son of the great discoverer. The merciless Velasquez was his general, and the frightful cruelties which he inaugurated upon the simple natives have been continued for nearly four hundred years by his successors in the island, though the annihilation of the aboriginal tribes themselves was a brief and bloody work. Velasquez rode them down and trampled them—regardless of age or sex—under the iron hoofs of his war-horses, slashed them with swords, devastated their villages, and bore them away into slavery. The Cuban had no weapons; the mountain fastnesses could not hide him from his relentless pursuer. African slaves, who were brought to the island in Spanish ships, were armed and forced by their masters to chase the natives, and not a forest or mountain top was a place of refuge for these doomed children of the soil. One historian declares: "There is little doubt that before 1560 the whole of this native population had disappeared from the island. They were so completely exterminated that it is doubtful if the blood of their race was even remotely preserved in the mixed classes who followed African and Chinese introduction."
statueMAGNIFICENT INDIAN STATUE IN THE PRADO, HAVANA, CUBA.
MAGNIFICENT INDIAN STATUE IN THE PRADO, HAVANA, CUBA.
A PERIOD OF REST.
For nearly two hundred years after the extermination of the natives, Cuba rested without a struggle in the arms of Spain. The early settlers engaged almost wholly in pastoral pursuits. Tobacco was indigenous to the soil, and in 1580 the Cuban planters began its culture. Later, sugar-cane was imported from the Canaries, and found to be a fruitful and profitable crop. The beginning of the culture of sugar demanded more laborers, and the importation of additional slaves was the result. In 1717, Spain attempted to make a monopoly of the tobacco culture, and the first Cuban revolt occurred. In 1723 a second uprising took place, because of an oppressive government; but these early revolts against tyranny were insignificant as compared with those of the last half-century.
In 1762, the city of Havana was captured by the English, with an expedition commanded by Lord Albemarle, but his fighting troops were principally Americans under the immediate command of Generals Phineas Lyman and Israel Putnam of Revolutionary fame. The story of Putnam's command in this war is thrilling and sad. After first suffering shipwreck and many hardships in reaching the island, they lay before Havana, where Spanish bullets and fever almost annihilated the whole command. Scarcely more than one in fifty lived to return to America. By the Treaty of Paris, 1763, Cuba was unfortunately restored to Spain, and it was afterward that her troubles with the "Mother Country," as Spain affectionately called herself to all her provinces, began. The hand of oppression for one and a quarter centuries relaxed not its grasp, and year by year grew heavier and more galling.
DISCONTENT AND INSURRECTIONS.
Some of the most prolific seeds of modern revolutions may be said to have been sown when the African slave trade assumed important proportions, in 1791. About the same time began a large importation of Chinese coolies, for which Cuba paid a bounty of $400 apiece to the importer. These coolies bound themselves to the Spaniards for eight years, for which they were paid $4.00 per month as wages. The new influx of labor and the coming of Las Casas as Captain-General to Cuba, in 1790, mark the beginning of Cuba's great period of prosperity. This enterprising ruler introduced numerous public improvements, established botanical gardens and schools of agriculture, with a view to developing and increasing Cuba's resources and commercial importance. Owing to his wise administration, Cuba prospered and remained undisturbed for a long while. An insurrection occurred among the slaves in 1812, which was promptly put down with characteristic cruelty, and the blacks remained "good niggers" for a third of a century. By the year 1844, the slave trade with Cuba had grown to enormous proportions. In that year alone, statistics tell us, 10,000 slaves were landed from Africa upon the island. Another wild and fanatical insurrection occurred the same year among them, which, as before, ended in failure. Seventy-eight of the rebels were shot, and many otherwise punished. By 1850, the slaves had so multiplied and the importation had been so large that the census showed there were nearly 500,000 on the island.
attackDARING ATTACK BY THE PATRIOTSOF CUBA UPON A FORT NEAR VUELTAS.
DARING ATTACK BY THE PATRIOTSOF CUBA UPON A FORT NEAR VUELTAS.
Meantime, in 1823 and 1827, insurrections were attempted on the part of the Creoles (descendants of Spanish and French settlers) and other free Cubans. They failed, and the blood of the martyrs was seed in the ground. Revolutionist and enslaved insurrectionist gradually drifted together. They had a common cause—to struggle for freedom against oppression. The bondsman was little or no worse off than the Creoles, Chinese coolies, and free negroes—all native-born Cubans were shut out from the enjoyment of true citizenship. They must do the work and pay the tribute, but Spaniards, born in Spain, were alone allowed to hold office of profit or trust under the government; and they looked with inexpressible contempt upon the rest of the population, and, with the backing of the army, preserved their domination in spite of their inferior numbers. The governor-general was appointed from Spain and held office from three to five years, and was expected to steal or extort himself rich in that time. It is said not one governor-general ever failed to do so.
THE TEN YEARS' WAR.
The first long and determined struggle of the oppressed people of Cuba for liberty began in 1868. In that year a revolution broke out in Spain, and the patriots seized the opportunity, while the mother country was occupied at home, for an heroic effort to liberate themselves. They rose first at Yara, in the district of Bayamo, and on October 10th of that year made a declaration of independence. Eight days later the city of Bayamo was taken by the patriots, and early in November they defeated a force sent against them from Santiago. The majority of the South American republics hastened to recognize the Cubans as belligerents; but—though they held their own in guerrilla warfare against the Spanish forces for ten years, fighting in the forests and bravely resisting all the efforts of Spain to subdue them—there was not one great power in the world willing to extend to the patriots the recognition of belligerent rights. The cruelty of the Spaniards toward the soldiers they captured, and to all inhabitants who sympathized with the patriots' cause, was equaled only by the courage, fortitude, and exalted patriotism which animated their victims. The following instances, selected from scores that might be cited, are given in the Spaniards' own words, translated,verbatim, into English:
SPANISH TESTIMONY OF HORRORS PRACTICED.
Jacob Rivocoba, under date of September 4, 1896, writes:
"We captured seventeen, thirteen of whom were shot outright; on dying they shouted, 'Hurrah for free Cuba! hurrah for independence!' A mulatto said, 'Hurrah for Cespedes!' On the following day we killed a Cuban officer and another man. Among the thirteen that we shot the first day were found three sons and their father; the father witnessed the execution of his sons without even changing color, and when his turn came he said he died for the independence of his country. On coming back we brought along with us three carts filled with women and children, the families of those we had shot; and they asked us to shoot them, because they would rather die than live among Spaniards."
"We captured seventeen, thirteen of whom were shot outright; on dying they shouted, 'Hurrah for free Cuba! hurrah for independence!' A mulatto said, 'Hurrah for Cespedes!' On the following day we killed a Cuban officer and another man. Among the thirteen that we shot the first day were found three sons and their father; the father witnessed the execution of his sons without even changing color, and when his turn came he said he died for the independence of his country. On coming back we brought along with us three carts filled with women and children, the families of those we had shot; and they asked us to shoot them, because they would rather die than live among Spaniards."
Pedro Fardon, another officer, who entered entirely into the spirit of the service he honored, writes on September 22, 1869:
"Not a single Cuban will remain in this island, because we shoot all those we find in the fields, on the farms, and in every hovel."
"Not a single Cuban will remain in this island, because we shoot all those we find in the fields, on the farms, and in every hovel."
And, again, on the same day, the same officer sends the following good news to his old father:
"We do not leave a creature alive where we pass, be it man or animal. If we find cows, we kill them; if horses, ditto; if hogs, ditto; men, women, or children, ditto; as to the houses, we burn them: so every one receives his due—the men in balls, the animals in bayonet-thrusts. The island will remain a desert."
"We do not leave a creature alive where we pass, be it man or animal. If we find cows, we kill them; if horses, ditto; if hogs, ditto; men, women, or children, ditto; as to the houses, we burn them: so every one receives his due—the men in balls, the animals in bayonet-thrusts. The island will remain a desert."
These atrocities were perpetrated not alone by the common soldier. In fact, the above reports come from men who were officers in the Spanish army, and they show that such actions were approved by the highest authority. A well-authenticated account assures us that General Count Balmaceda himself went on one occasion to the home of a patriot family, Mora by name, to arrest or kill the patriots he had heard were stopping there; but, finding the men all absent, he wreaked his vengeance and thirst for blood by butchering the two Mora sisters and burning the house over their bodies.
PEACE AND FAIR PROMISES.
At last, Spain, seeing that she could neither induce the Cubans to surrender nor draw them into a decisive battle; and finding, furthermore, that her army of 200,000 men was likely to be annihilated by death, disease, and patriot bullets, made overtures, which, by promising many privileges to the people that they had not before enjoyed, effected a peace. As a result of this war, slavery was abolished in the island; but Spain's promises for fair and equitable government were repudiated, and the civil powers became more extortionate and severe than ever. This war laid a heavy debt upon Spain, and Cuba was taxed inordinately. The people soon saw that they had been duped. The world looked upon Cuba and Spain as at peace. To the outsider the surface was placid, but underneath "the waters were troubled." Such heroic spirits as Generals Calixto Garcia, Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo, and Maximo Gomez, leaders in the ten years' struggle, still lived, though scattered far apart, and in their hearts bore a load of righteous wrath against their treacherous foe. While such men lived and such conditions existed another conflict was inevitable.
THE LAST GREAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM.
It was on February 24, 1895, that the last revolution of the Cuban patriots began. Spain had heard the mutterings of the coming storm, and hoped to stay it by visiting with severe punishment every Cuban suspected of patriotic affiliations. Antonio Maceo, a mulatto, but a man of fortune and education, a veteran of the ten years' war, and a Cuban by birth, was banished to San Domingo. There were other exiles in Key West, New York, and elsewhere. Jose Marti was the leading spirit in forming the Cuban Junta in New York and organizing revolutionary clubs among Cubans everywhere. Antonio Maceo was the first of the old leaders in the field. He went secretly to Cuba and began organizing the insurrectionists, and when war was declared the flag of the new republic, bearing a lone white star in a red field, was flung to the breeze. Captain-General Calleja declared martial law in the insurgents' vicinity, and troops were hastily summoned and sent from Spain. The revolutionists from the start fought by guerrilla methods of warfare, dashing upon the unsuspecting Spanish towns and forces, and escaping to the mountains before the organized Spaniards could retaliate.
Jose Marti and Jose Maceo—brother of the general—were prompt to join the active forces, and on April 13, 1895, General Maximo Gomez, a native of San Domingo, came over and was made commander of the insurgent forces. This grizzled old hero, with nearly seventy years behind him, was at once an inspiration and a host within himself. An army of 6,000 men was ready for his command, and the revolution took on new life and began in all its fury. On May 19th the insurgents met their first great disaster, when Jose Marti was led into an ambush and killed. But his blood was like a seed planted, from which thousands of patriots sprang up for the ranks. Within a few days there were 10,000 ill-armed but determined men in the field. They had no artillery, nearly half were without guns, and there was little ammunition for those who were armed.
THE PLANS OF CAMPOS THWARTED.
In April, 1895, Captain-General Calleja was replaced by Martinez Campos, the commander in the preceding war, and one of the ablest of the Spanish generals. He sought to conciliate the people and alleviate the prevailing distress, but the rebels in arms had lost all faith in Spanish honor, while the veteran Gomez proved so wily that Campos could neither capture him nor force him into an engagement. Everywhere Gomez marched he gathered new patriots. Near the city of Bayamo, Maceo attacked Campos, and the Spanish commander barely escaped with his life. He was besieged in Bayamo, and had to stay there until 10,000 soldiers were sent to escort him home. That was the last of Campos' fighting. By August, Spain had spent $21,300,000 and lost 20,000 men by death, and 39,000 additional soldiers had been brought into the island, 25,000 of them the flower of the Spanish army, and she was also forced to issue $120,000,000 bonds, which she sold at a great sacrifice, to carry on the war.
sigsbeeCAPTAIN C.D. SIGSBEECommander of the "Maine" at thefrightful catastrophe in Havana Harbor,February 15, 1898.
CAPTAIN C.D. SIGSBEECommander of the "Maine" at thefrightful catastrophe in Havana Harbor,February 15, 1898.
The patriots met September 13, 1895, at Camaguey and formed their government by adopting a constitution and electing a president and other state officers. This body formally conferred upon Gomez the commission of commander-in-chief of the army. Before the close of the month, there were 30,000 rebels in the field. Spanish war-ships patroled the coast, but the insurgents held the whole interior of Santiago province, and government forces dared not venture away from the sea. The same was true of Santa Clara and Puerto Principe. Matanzas was debatable ground; but Gomez made bold raids into the very vicinity of Havana. Spain continued to increase her army, till by the year 1898 it numbered about 200,000 men.
As if the cup of Cuba's sorrow were not sufficiently bitter, or her long-suffering patriots had not drunk deep enough of its gall, General Campos was recalled, and General Valeriano Weyler (nicknamed "The Butcher") arrived in February, 1896. He promptly inaugurated the most bitter and inhuman policy in the annals of modern warfare. It began with a campaign of intimidation, in which his motto was "Subjugation or Death." He established a system of espionage that was perfect, and the testimony of the spy was all the evidence he required. He heeded no prayer and knew no mercy. His prisons overflowed with suspected patriots, and his sunrise executions, every morning, made room for others. It was thus that General Weyler carried on the war from his palace against the unarmed natives, his 200,000 soldiers seldom securing a shot at the insurgents, who were continually bushwhacking them with deadly effect, while yellow fever carried them off by the thousands. How many lives Weyler sacrificed in that dreadful year will never be known. How many suspects he frightened into giving him all their gold for mercy and then coldly shot for treason, no record will disclose; but the crowded, unmarked graves on the hillside outside Havana are mute but eloquent witnesses of his infamy.
sunriseSUNRISE EXECUTIONS.Outside the prison walls, Havana.Weyler's way of gettingrid of prisoners.
SUNRISE EXECUTIONS.Outside the prison walls, Havana.Weyler's way of gettingrid of prisoners.
Under these conditions, Gomez declared that all Cubans must take sides. They must be for or against. It was no time for neutrals and there could be no neutral ground, so he boldly levied forced contributions upon planters unfavorable to his cause, and extended protection to those who befriended the patriots. Exasperated by Weyler's atrocities upon non-combatant patriots, he dared to destroy or confiscate the property of Spanish sympathizers.
THE DEATH OF GENERAL MACEO.
On the night of December 4, 1896, the insurgents suffered an irreparable loss in the death of General Maceo, who was led into an ambush and killed, it is believed, through the treachery of his staff physician. Eight brothers of Maceo had previously given their lives for Cuban freedom.
At the close of 1896, the island was desolate to an extreme perhaps unprecedented in modern times. The country was laid waste and the cities were starving. Under the pretext of protecting them, Weyler gathered the non-combatants into towns and stockades, and it is authoritatively stated that 200,000 men, women, and children of the "reconcentrados," as they were called, died of disease and starvation. The insurgents remained masters of the island except along the coasts. The only important incident of actual warfare was the capture of Victoria de las Tunas, in Santiago province, by General Garcia at the head of 3,000 men, after three days' fighting. In this battle the Spanish commander lost his life and forty per cent. of his troops were killed or wounded; the rest surrendered to Garcia, and the rebels secured by their victory 1,000 rifles, 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition, and two Krupp guns.
In the spring of 1898 the United States intervened. The story of our war with Spain for Cuba's freedom is elsewhere related.
bartonCLARA BARTON.President of the American Red Cross Society.
CLARA BARTON.President of the American Red Cross Society.
Spain has paid dearly for her supremacy in Cuba during the last third of the nineteenth century. Notwithstanding the fact that the revenue from Cuba for several years prior to the Ten Years' War of 1868-78 amounted to $26,000,000 annually—about $18 for every man, woman, and child in the island—$20,000,000 of it was absorbed in Spain's official circles at Havana, and "the other $6,000,000 that the Spanish government received," says one historian, "was hardly enough to pay transportation rates on the help that the mother country had to send to her army of occupation." Consequently, despite this enormous tax, a heavy debt accumulated on account of the island, even before the Ten Years' War began.
FEARFUL COST OF THE WAR.
At the close of the Ten Years' War (1878) Spain had laid upon the island a public debt of $200,000,000, and required her to raise $39,000,000 of revenue annually, an average at that time of nearly $30 per inhabitant. But Spain's own debt had, also, increased to nearly $2,000,000,000, and during this Ten Years' War she had sent 200,000 soldiers and her favorite commanders to the island, only about 50,000 of whom ever returned. According to our Consular Report of July, 1898, when the last revolution began, 1895, the Cuban debt had reached $295,707,264. The interest on this alone imposed a burden of $9.79 per annum upon each inhabitant. During the war, Spain had 200,000 troops in the island, and the three and one-half years' conflict cost her the loss of nearly 100,000 lives, mostly from sickness, and, as yet, unknown millions of dollars. The real figures of the loss of life and treasure seem incredible when we consider that Cuba is not larger than our State of Pennsylvania, and that her entire population at the beginning of the war was about one-fourth that of the State named, or a little less than that of the city of Chicago alone. Yet Spain, with an army larger than the combined northern and southern forces at the battle of Gettysburg, was unable to overcome the insurgents, who had never more than one-fourth as many men enlisted. But she harassed, tortured, and starved to death within three years, perhaps, over 500,000 non-combatant citizens in her attempt to subjugate the patriots, and was in a fair way to depopulate the whole island when the United States at last intervened to succor them.
THE FUTURE OF THE ISLAND.
What the future of Cuba may be under new conditions of government remains to be seen. Certainly, in all the world's history few sadder or more devastated lands have gathered their remnants of population upon the ashes of their ruins and turned a hopeful face to the future.
mestizaA SPANISH MESTIZA.
A SPANISH MESTIZA.
But the soil, the mineral and the timber not even Spanish tyranny could destroy; and in these lie the hope, we might say the sure guarantee, of Cuba's future. In wealth of resources and fertility of soil, Cuba is superior to all other tropical countries, and these fully justify its right to the title "Pearl of the Antilles," first given it by Columbus. Under a wise and secure government, its possibilities are almost limitless. Owing to its location at the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico, which it divides into the Yucatan and Florida channels, on the south and north, the island has been termed the "Key to the Gulf of Mexico," and on its coat of arms is emblazoned a key, as if to imply its ability to open or close this great sea to the commerce of the world.
Cuba extends from east to west 760 miles, is 21 miles wide in its narrowest part and 111 miles in the widest, with an average width of 60 miles. It has numerous harbors, which afford excellent anchorage. The area of the island proper is 41,655 square miles (a little larger than the State of Ohio); and including the Isle of Pines and other small points around its entire length, numbering in all some 1,200, there are 47,278 square miles altogether in Cuba and belonging to it. The island is intersected by broken ranges of mountains, which gradually increase in height from west to east, where they reach an elevation of nearly 8,000 feet. The central and western portions of the island are the most fertile, while the principal mineral deposits are in the mountains of the eastern end. In Matanzas and other central provinces, the well-drained, gently sloping plains, diversified by low, forest-clad hills, are especially adapted to sugar culture, and the country under normal conditions presents the appearance of vast fields of cane. The western portion of the island is also mountainous, but the elevations are not great, and in the valleys and along the fertile slopes of this district is produced the greater part of the tobacco for which the island is famous.
FERTILITY OF SOIL AND ITS PRODUCTS.
The soil of the whole island seems well-nigh inexhaustible. Except in tobacco culture, fertilizers are never used. In the sugar districts are found old canefields that have produced annual crops for a hundred years without perceptible impoverishment of the soil. Besides sugar and tobacco, the island yields Indian corn, rice, manioc (the plant from which tapioca is prepared), oranges, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, guava, and all other tropical fruits, with many of those belonging to the temperate zone. Raw sugar, molasses, and tobacco are the chief products, and, with fruits, nuts, and unmanufactured woods, form the bulk of exports, though coffee culture, formerly active, is now being revived, and its fine quality indicates that it must in time become one of the most important products of the island.
As a sugar country, Cuba takes first rank in the world. Mr. Gallon, the English Consul, in his report to his government in 1897 upon this Cuban crop, declared: "Of the other cane-sugar countries of the world, Java is the only one which comes within 50 per cent. of the amount of sugar produced annually in Cuba in normal times, and Java and the Hawaiian Islands are the only ones which are so generally advanced in the process of manufacture." Our own Consul, Hyatt, in his report of February, 1897, expresses the belief that Cuba is equal to supplying the entire demands of the whole western hemisphere with sugar—a market for 4,000,000 tons or more, and requiring a crop four times as large as the island has ever yet produced. Those who regard this statement as extravagant should remember that Cuba, although founded and settled more than fifty years before the United States, has nearly 14,000,000 acres of uncleared primeval forest-land, and is capable of easily supporting a population more than ten times that of the present. In fact, the Island of Java, not so rich as Cuba, and of very nearly the same area, with less tillable land, has over 22,000,000 inhabitants as against Cuba's—perhaps at this time—not more than 1,200,000 souls.
MINERAL AND TIMBER RESOURCES.
The mineral resources of Cuba are second in importance to its agricultural products. Gold and silver are not believed to exist in paying quantities, but its most valuable mineral, copper, seems to be almost inexhaustible. The iron and manganese mines, in the vicinity of Santiago, are of great importance, the ores being rated among the finest in the world. Deposits of asphalt and mineral oils are also found.
The third resource of Cuba in importance is its forest product. Its millions of acres of unbroken woodlands are rich in valuable hard woods, suitable for the finest cabinet-work and ship-building, and also furnish many excellent dye woods. Mahogany, cedar, rosewood, and ebony abound. The palm, of which there are thirty-odd species found in the island, is one of the most characteristic and valuable of Cuban trees.
CITIES AND COMMERCE.
The commerce of Cuba has been great in the past, but Spanish laws made it expensive and oppressive to the Cubans. Its location and resources, with wise government, assure to the island an enormous trade in the future. There are already four cities of marked importance to the commercial world: Havana with a population of 250,000, Santiago with 71,000, Matanzas with 29,000, and Cienfuegos with 30,000, are all seaport cities with excellent harbors, and all do a large exporting business. Add to these Cardenas with 25,000, Trinidad with 18,000, Manzanillo with 10,000, and Guantanamo and Baracoa, each with 7,000 inhabitants, we have an array of ten cities such as few strictly farming countries of like size possess. Aside from cigar and cigarette making, there is little manufacturing in Cuba; but fruit canneries, sugar refineries, and various manufacturing industries for the consumption of native products will rapidly follow in the steps of good government. Hence, in the field of manufacturing this island offers excellent inducements to capital.
SEASONS AND CLIMATE.
Like all tropical countries, Cuba has but two seasons, the wet and the dry. The former extends from May to October, June, July, and August being the most rainy months. The dry season lasts from November to May. This fact must go far toward making the island more and more popular as a winter health resort. The interior of the island is mountainous, and always pleasantly cool at night, while on the highlands the heat in the day is less oppressive than in New York and Pennsylvania during the hottest summer weather; consequently, when once yellow fever, which now ravages the coasts of the island on account of its defective sanitation, is extirpated, as it doubtless will be under the new order of things, Cuba will become the seat of many winter homes for wealthy residents of the United States. Even in the summer, the temperature seldom rises above 90°, while the average for the year is 77°. At no place, except in the extreme mountainous altitude, is it ever cold enough for frost.