Spain's Policy of Distrust—The Cost of the Ten Years' War—Workof the Cuban Exiles—Revolutionary Clubs in the WesternHemisphere—An Expedition Checked—Heroism of Cuban Women—TheStruggle Begun.
Ever since Spain lost her colonies on the American continent the Cubans have striven to gain their independence. The Ten Years War cost the mother country 300,000,000 pesetas and 100,000 men, most of them victims of yellow fever. When slavery was abolished in 1880 fresh disturbances ensued. The majority of slave holders, who received no compensation, joined the party of independence.
Spain, adhering to her old policy of distrust, retained a large army in Cuba and a navy round about her shores, the expenses of which caused the budget to amount to $46,594,000 at a time when two-thirds of the island was nothing but a mass of ruins, and when Cuba was beginning to feel the effects of the competition with other sugar-producing countries.
While the European manufacturers received important bounties those of Cuba had to pay export duties on their sugar, and the importation of all agricultural and industrial implements was subjected to a tariff almost prohibitive.
Two laws were enacted in 1882 to regulate commerce between Cuba and Spain. By the provisions of these laws the import duties on all Spanish products were to be gradually diminished until their importation in Cuba became entirely free, while the Cubans had to pay on their imports to Spain duties which practically closed the Spanish market to all their products.
Spanish goods, as a rule, are much inferior to those of English, French or American manufacture, but the Cuban consumer was forced to buy Spanish goods or pay an exorbitant price for those which he would have preferred to buy at a fair price. An instance will suffice to illustrate this: When the present war began in 1895 the duty on a hundred kilogrammes of woolen cashmere was fifteen dollars and forty-seven cents if Spanish, three hundred dollars if foreign. These differential duties opened a reign of prosperity for industry in Spain, where foreign goods were imported or smuggled, to be later sent to Cuba as Spanish.
The injustice of these commercial laws was so evident and so detrimental to the interests of Cuba that in 1894 the Planters' Association, the president of which, the Count de Diana, was a Spaniard, referred to them as "destructive of our public wealth, a source of inextinguishable discontent and the germ of serious dissensions."
The insular budgets could never be covered, and the result was that the public debt was kept on the increase. The expenditures were classed as follows: For army and navy, 36.59 per cent of the budget's total; for the debt, 40.89; for justice and government, 19.77, and for public works, 2.75. No public work of any kind was begun in the seventeen years which intervened between the two wars.
The Cuban Treasury, between 1823 and 1864, sent to Spain $82,165,436 in gold. This money entered the Spanish Treasury as "Colonial surplus," but as a Spanish writer (Zaragoza) says in his book, "Las Insurrecciones de Cuba," it was absurd to speak of a surplus when not even the opening of a bad road was undertaken.
Politically, the condition of the Cubans after the restoration of peace in 1878, was as bad as it had been before. Laws existed which might lead unobserving persons to believe that the Cubans enjoyed every liberty, but as a matter of fact the Cubans were kept under the most unbearable vassalage. The Spaniards in Cuba before this war numbered only 9.30 per cent of the island's population, but, availing themselves of a law which gave to them a majority in the electoral census, they were to return twenty-four of the thirty deputies which the island then sent to the Spanish Cortes.
So restrictive was the electoral law that only 53,000 men were qualified to vote in the entire island, although its population was 1,762,000. In the municipal district of Guines, with a population of 12,500 Cubans and 500 Spaniards, the electoral census included 400 Spaniards and thirty-two Cubans. This is one among many similar instances. The Board of Aldermen in Havana, the capital city of the island, has for years been made up entirely of Spaniards, and the same may be said of Cienfuegos and other important cities.
Despite all constitutional provisions the governor-general of the island had the power to deport from the island, without a trial, any person whose presence there he considered dangerous to the security of the State. The island was at peace when Cepeda, Lopez de Brinas and Marquez Sterling, all journalists, were deported. The liberty of the press was and still is a myth. El Pais, the Autonomist organ, was criminally prosecuted in 1889 because it denounced the appointment of one of the sons of the president of the Havana Court of Appeals to a place which he could not lawfully hold.
What liberty of association the Cubans enjoyed may be judged from the fact that a delegate of the government had to be present at their meetings, with power to dissolve them whenever he saw fit to do so.
No Cuban was able to obtain a place in the administration unless he was rich enough to go to Madrid and there become acquainted with some influential politician. Even so, Cubans seldom succeeded in being appointed to places of importance.
The Cuban exiles in Key West, New York and other cities in the United States, and in Costa Rica, Honduras, Santo Domingo and other parts of Spanish America, had been planning a new uprising for several years. The desire of the Cubans for national independence was quickened by what they suffered from Spain's misgovernment. For two or three years the exiles in the United States and Spanish American countries, veterans of the war of 1868-78, and younger champions of free Cuba, organized clubs, collected a war fund, purchased munitions of war and laid plans with their compatriots in Cuba for a new struggle for independence. There were 140 revolutionary clubs in North and South America, Cuba and other West India islands, affiliated under the name of the revolutionary party, ready to support an uprising with financial and moral aid. Cuban workingmen in the United States promised to contribute a tenth of their earnings, or more if necessary. There were firearms on the island that had remained concealed since the former war, some had been bought from corrupt custodians of the government arsenals, who, finding it impossible to get pay due them from Spain, took this method of securing what was rightfully theirs.
An expedition that planned to sail in the yacht Lagonda from Fernandina, Fla., on January 14, 1895, was broken up by the United States authorities. General Antonio Maceo, its leader, with Jose Marti, the political organizer of the new government, went to Santo Domingo, where they could confer with the revolutionist leaders living in Cuba. There Marti found Maximo Gomez, the veteran of a dozen struggles and a brave and able soldier, and offered him the command and organization of the army. Gomez accepted and began at once to arrange his programme.
The plan of the revolutionists was to rise simultaneously in the six provinces on February 24. The leaders on the island and the organizers abroad had a thorough understanding.
The men of Cuba were not alone in their plans for independence, for their wives and sisters, mothers and sweethearts, were enthusiastic and faithful allies. The island was full of devoted women reared in indolence and luxury who were tireless in their successful efforts to get word from, one scattered rebel band to another, and to send them food, medicines and clothing. These women were far better conspirators than their fathers and brothers, for Cuban men must talk, but the women seem to know the value of silence.
Beautiful and delicate senoritas would disguise themselves in men's attire and steal out at night to the near-by haunts of lover or brother in the "Long Grass," as the insurgents' camps are called, with food secreted in false pockets, or letters, whose envelopes had been dipped in ink, hidden in their black hair. Medicines were carried in canes, and cloth for clothes or wounds was concealed in the lining of coats. One girl, disguised as a vender, frequently carried to the woods dynamite in egg shells deftly put together.
She had many thrilling experiences, but her narrowest escape was when a Spanish soldier by the roadside insisted on taking from the basket an egg, to let its contents drop in a hot and ready pan. He was with difficulty persuaded to forego the meal. The dynamite was made by another woman, who carefully obtained the ingredients at various times and at widely scattered drug stores.
And so, with almost every Cuban man, woman and child united in a fixed determination to make the island one of the free and independent nations of the earth, the final struggle was begun.
Organization Which Has Represented the Insurgents in the UnitedStates—Splendid Work Done by Senor Tomas Estrada Palma and HisStaff—Sources of the War Funds—Generosity of Cuban Cigar MakersWho Have Supported the Revolution—Liberal Gifts from Americans—Some Inside Facts about Filibustering—American Sailors Do NotLike to Capture Insurgent Supplies—Palma's Address to theAmerican People.
From the moment of the first outbreak of insurrection in Cuba, in February, 1895, the name of the Cuban Junta has been a familiar phrase to everyone in the United States, and yet its functions and its organization have been by no means well understood. There have been those in Congress and elsewhere who have spoken of it slightingly as an organization banded together for its own profit in some way, not realizing that its members were the trusted representatives abroad of the whole Cuban people.
The parallels between the Cuban insurrection and that of the American colonies against Great Britain in 1776, are far more numerous than has been recognized. The Cuban army has been poorly clothed and scantily fed at times, and equipped with all sorts of obsolete weapons of offence. But these things are m> disgrace, and indeed are the basis of much of the pride that Americans take in the splendid work which their ancestors did in that other insurrection, which, having resulted successfully, is now known as the American Revolution. There have been sneers at the government of the Cuban republic because its officers have had to move from place to place at various times, in order to avoid threatened capture by the Spanish forces. But was there ever a more peripatetic national government than that of the American colonies during the Revolution, when the legislature and its officers sat successively in Philadelphia, Germantown, Princeton, New York and several other places, driven out of each in turn by the same fear of capture by British troops?
Finally, it ought to be remembered, though it may not be, that the colonies maintained an organization exactly similar to that of the Cuban Junta in New York, for the purpose of securing money and support from the people and the governments of Europe, to whom they were accredited. The only country which gave them welcome encouragement was France. But Benjamin Franklin's position in Paris as the head of what was virtually the American Junta, was then and is now an honor to his name and his countrymen. It enlisted the same aid from France and French citizens that the Cuban Junta in New York has enlisted from the United States and American citizens, and there is no reason to form any less creditable judgment of the latter enterprise than the former.
The Junta is the organization through which Cuba's friends reach the Cubans in the field. In many places these friends are banded together and work for the Cuban cause as organizations. In the United States and Europe there are 300 Cuban revolutionary clubs, with a membership of more than 50,000. These clubs were the outcome of a suggestion originating with Jose Marti, and their organization has been accomplished by the delegation, with whom they are all in closest touch, to whom they all account, and through whom they all make contributions in money, clothing, provisions, arms, and munitions for those who are enduring the hardships of the war. Before the revolution began these clubs had $100,000 in bank as a war fund.
These most vital contributions must reach the army in the field, and it is the business of the delegation to see that they get there. And they have been getting there under most adverse and trying circumstances, and amid perils of land and sea where enemies are watching and where a friendly government has had to guard against the violation of neutrality laws.
For accomplishing its work the Junta has in no way been restricted in authority, the Cuban government having even granted special authority allowing Mr. Palma to issue a limited amount of bonds, coin money, and grant letters of marque.
It has further been the business of the Junta—attended by risk of life to its agents—to keep in communication with the insurgents. This has been done by secret agents who come and go from New York to Key West, from Key West to Havana, from Havana into Spanish cities of Cuba and through the provinces of the island.
The headquarters of the Junta bears no outward sign except that the stars and stripes and the single starred flag of Cuba wave from the third-story window, where is Mr. Palma's office. A narrow hall and tortuous stairs lead to the office of the delegate, where on every side are signs of active business, with shelves, tables, and desks holding heaps of letters, books of accounts, and documents of various sorts. Here the delegate works, receives his friends, coworkers, and agents.
Off the main room is a private office, where secret agents report and are instructed, and where councils of moment are held and decisions of vital import to the Cuban cause reached, to be followed by orders that are of immense importance to the army of liberation.
The Cuban Junta, with its headquarters, represents the legation of the Cuban republic abroad, and the head of the Junta, as it is called, is T. Estrada Palma. Properly speaking he is the delegate, and with the members of his ministerial and diplomatic household constitutes the delegation of the Cuban republic.
The term "Junta" has been applied because such a body or council was attached to the diplomatic department of Cuba during the Ten Years' war. As the authority of the Junta frequently restricted the action of the delegate, the promoters of the present revolution decided to eliminate it; yet the name remains, and is used and accepted to designate Mr. Palma and his associates.
This Junta, as the representative of the Cuban republic, acts on high authority, for the delegation was appointed on September 19, 1895, by the Constituent Assembly that formed the government and commissioned Maximo Gomez chief commander of the Cuban army. At the same time it made Mr. Palma delegate and Cuban representative abroad, with authority to appoint ministers to all governments and to have control of all of Cuba's diplomatic relations and representatives throughout the world. Besides this, Mr. Palma is the duly accredited minister from Cuba to the United States, and in the event of the Cuban republic being recognized would be received as such.
Under his authority Mr. Palma has appointed sub-delegates, or diplomatic agents, in France, Italy, Mexico, and the Central and South American republics. Cuba's independence not being acknowledged by these nations, her ministers are not officially recognized, but are often unofficially received at the "back door," and exert an influence for the benefit of Cuba in the countries to which they are appointed.
Mr. Palma is in reality the head of the Cuban revolutionary party abroad, which is one of the three departments of the Cuban revolutionary government, the two others being the civil government and the army of liberation.
This Cuban revolutionary branch was founded by Jose Marti, who is regarded by the Cubans as the apostle and master mind of the Cuban revolution.
Mr. Palma is not only the head and front of the Junta, but he is the one person in whom its authority is centered. He was born in Cuba about sixty years ago, and in his tender youth imbibed the spirit of liberty for the island, a spirit which grew with him until it influenced his every word and act, and finally received his entire devotion. So direct, gentle, yet determined are his methods, and so unassuming and plain is he in speech and manner that he soon became known as the "Cuban Franklin," and more firmly has the name become attached to him since the potent influence of his policy has been felt throughout the world.
During the Ten Years' war Mr. Palma was President of the Cuban republic; was made prisoner by Spanish troops, and sent to Spain, where he was imprisoned until the close of the conflict. While in Spain, absolutely suffering under the hardships of imprisonment, he was offered freedom if he would swear allegiance to the Spanish crown.
"No!" was his answer. "You may shoot me if you will, but if I am shot it will be as the President of the Cuban republic."
Besides Mr. Palma, the only members of the delegation appointed by theCuban government are: Dr. Joaquin D. Castillo, the sub-delegate;Benjamin J. Guerra, treasurer of the republic abroad, and Gonzalo deQuesada, charge d'affaires at Washington.
Dr. Castillo is vice-delegate and would take Mr. Palma's place in case of his death or inability to act.
The Junta, whose duty it has been to provide the funds for the carrying on of the war, has had various sources of income, all of them distinctly creditable, both to the integrity of the Cuban authorities and to the sentiments of those who have contributed the money. The larger portion of the cash has come in small contributions from Cubans living in the United States. The cigarmakers of Key West, Tampa, Jacksonville, New York and other cities where large Cuban colonies have congregated, have proven their patriotism and their adherence to the cause by giving more generously of their earnings than has ever been done before by the people of any country struggling for freedom. There is scarcely an exception to the assertion that every Cuban in America has shared in contributions to the war fund.
The minimum contribution has been ten per cent of the weekly earnings, and this has brought an enormous sum into the coffers of the Junta for war purposes. It is true that a war chest of $50,000 or $100,000 a week would be hardly a drop in the bucket for the conduct of the war after the established methods of organized armies. But this has been a war for liberty, and the conditions have been unique. No soldier in all the armies of Cuba Libre has ever drawn one dollar of pay for his service. Thousands of them have been fighting from the first outbreak of insurrection, without receiving a cent of money for it. If the pay of an army be deducted from the expenses of a war, the largest item is saved.
Nor has it been necessary to purchase many clothes, owing to the mildness of the Cuban climate, which fights in favor of those who are accustomed to it. The commissary department, too, has been almost non-existent, and the soldiers in the field have lived by foraging and by collecting the vegetables and fruits saved for them by the women and children, whose hearts are as deep in the conflict as are their own. The principal demand for money has been to procure arms, ammunition and medical and surgical supplies.
In addition to the contributions which have come from patriotic Cubans, another large source of income to the Junta has been the silent liberality of many American citizens, who have proved their practical sympathy to the cause of freedom by giving of their wealth to aid it. Outside of these sources, the only income has been from the sale of bonds of the Cuban republic, a means of obtaining money which has been used conservatively, so that the infant republic should not be saddled with a heavy debt at the outset of its career as an independent nation.
Aside from the contributions of money to the Cuban powers, enormous quantities of medical and surgical supplies and hospital delicacies have been offered by the generous people of the United States, organized into Cuban Auxiliary Aid Societies in the various cities of the country. American women have taken a prominent part in this movement and have won thereby the undying gratitude of the Cubans.
The sailing of vessels from New York and other ports with cargoes of supplies for the Cuban revolutionists has been a frequent occurrence, far more so than has been known to the public. Filibustering is a phrase that has gained honor during these three years, such as it never had before. Carried on in the cause of humanity and liberty, its motives justified its irregularities, and there have been few to condemn the practice. In the fogs of an early morning, some fast steamer would slip away from an Atlantic port, loaded with arms, ammunition, quinine, and all sorts of hospital, medical and surgical supplies, accompanied usually by a band of Cuban patriots, seeking the first opportunity to return to their beautiful island and take up arms for its liberation. There have been a few such expeditions captured, but for everyone captured a score have reached their destination on the Cuban coast without interruption, and have landed their cargo in safety in insurgent camps.
The United States government, in recognition of its diplomatic obligations, spent millions of dollars prior to the outbreak of our war with Spain, in carrying on a patrol service of the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico, to prevent the sailing of filibustering expeditions. Now that the day of such patrol service in the aid of Spain is ended forever, there can be no harm in telling some of the details that might have been compromising before.
American cruisers and gunboats were stationed in the harbors around the coast, from New York to New Orleans, and particularly on both sides of the Florida peninsula. To one of these vessels would come the news that a suspected filibustering craft was likely to sail from a certain place at a certain time, and orders would be given to intercept the rover if possible. To one who did not know the temper and the spirit of American sailors from highest to lowest in the service of the navy, the actions that followed might have been puzzling. In spite of the proverbial alacrity and readiness with which an American vessel can make sail, there was always a delay at such times. It was almost certain that something would be wrong that would require some time to correct before the anchor could be weighed. It might be necessary to buy provisions or to take on coal before sailing, and then, more than once after the anchor was weighed and the actual start begun, it would be discovered that some minor accident had occurred to the machinery, which would require another halt to repair it. Finally at sea, the cruiser would steam away at full speed in the direction of the reported filibuster, until her hull and even her smoke disappeared far down in the horizon.
What happened after that no one ashore could know. But more than once there were grave suspicions that other delays occurred as goon as the vessel was well out of sight, or that the course was changed in pursuit of some other passing vessel, until after a few hours' chase it would be discovered to be an unoffending craft, and the course would be resumed towards the goal, as first ordered.
However these things may be, it is certain that the capture of a filibustering vessel before her cargo was discharged was an almost unknown event, and that the capture of such a craft after her cargo was discharged could in no way be disastrous to the Cuban cause when nothing could be proved against the boat or her men. Certain it is that no officer or sailor in the American navy ever wanted to capture a filibuster. To an American it was a blot on the honor of the ship that it should be used to intercept arms and ammunition on their way to an oppressed people struggling for their freedom. It is safe to say that the two or three captures which were made of filibusters at such a time that their confiscation and the conviction of their officers could not be avoided, was a distinct grief to every man who participated in the chase and the punishments that followed.
No one can deny the integrity or the ability of the men who are enlisted in the cause of Cuba as the New York Junta, who knows the facts as to their personality and the work they have done. Some of the diplomatic and state papers which have been issued by Senor Palma are worthy to take rank with the utterances of any American who has gained fame in national history for similar work. A notable instance of the dignity and the eloquence with which he speaks, is found in the proclamation to the people of the United States which he issued but a few weeks before the outbreak of our war with Spain. He said:
"The persistency with which the American press has during the last few days been treating of supposed administrative reforms to be introduced in Cuba by the government of Spain, compels me to request the publication of the following declarations, which I make in behalf of my government, of the army of liberation of Cuba, and of the Cuban revolutionary party.
"The question of the proposed reforms is not a matter which at all concerns those who have already established an independent government in Cuba and have resolved to shrink from no sacrifice of property or life in order to emancipate the whole island from the Spanish yoke. If the Spanish residents of the island who are favored by the Spanish government with all sorts of privileges and monopolies, and if the handful of Cubans, too pusillanimous or too proud to acknowledge their error, or a few foreigners guided only by selfish interests, are satisfied that Cuba should remain under Spanish domination, we who fight under the flag of the solitary star, we who already constitute the Republic of Cuba, and belong to a free people with its own government and its own laws, are firmly resolved to listen to no compromise and to treat with Spain on the basis of absolute independence for Cuba.
"If Spain has power to exterminate us, then let her convert the island into a vast cemetery; if she has not and wishes to terminate the war before the whole country is reduced to ashes, then let her adopt the only measure that will put an end to it and recognize our independence. Spain must know by this time that while there is a single living Cuban with dignity—and there are many thousands of them—there will not be peace in Cuba, nor even hope of it.
"All good causes must finally triumph, and ours is a good cause. It is the cause of justice treated with contempt, of right suppressed by force, and of the dignity of a people offended to the last degree.
"We Cubans have a thousandfold more reason in our endeavors to free ourselves from the Spanish yoke than the people of the thirteen colonies had when in 1776 they rose in arms against the British government.
"The people of these colonies were in full enjoyment of all the rights of man; they had liberty of conscience, freedom of speech, liberty of the press, the right of public meeting and the right of free locomotion; they elected those who governed them, they made their own laws and, in fact, enjoyed the blessings of self-government. They were not under the sway of a captain-general with arbitrary powers, who at his will could imprison them, deport them to penal colonies, or order their execution even without the semblance of a court-martial. They did not have to pay a permanent army and navy that they might be kept in subjection, nor to feed a swarm of hungry employes yearly sent over from the metropolis to prey upon the country.
"They were never subjected to a stupid and crushing customs tariff which compelled them to go to the home markets for millions of merchandise annually, which they could buy much cheaper elsewhere; they were never compelled to cover a budget of $26,000,000 or $30,000,000 a year, without the consent of the tax-payers, and for the purposes of defraying the expenses of the army and navy of the oppressor, to pay the salaries of thousands of worthless European employes, the whole interest on a debt not incurred by the colony, and other expenditures from which the island received no benefit whatever; for out of all those millions only the paltry sum of $700,000 was apparently applied for works of internal improvement and one-half of this invariably went into the pockets of the Spanish employes.
"We have thrown ourselves into the struggle advisedly and deliberately; we knew what we would have to face, and we decided unflinchingly to persevere until we should emancipate ourselves from the Spanish government. And we know that we are able to do it, as we know that we are competent to govern ourselves.
"Among other proofs which could be adduced of the ability of the Cuban white and colored to rule themselves, is the strong organization of the Cuban revolutionary party in America. It is composed of more than 20,000 Cubans, living in different countries of the new world and formed into clubs, the members of which yearly elect their leader. This organization has been in existence over five years, during which every member has strictly discharged his duties, has respected without any interruption the regulations and obeyed the elected delegate loyally and faithfully. Among the members of the clubs there are several Spaniards, who enjoy the same rights as the Cubans, and who live with them in fraternal harmony. This fact and that of the many Spaniards incorporated into our army, fully demonstrate that our revolution is not the result of personal hatred, but an uprising inspired only by the natural love of liberty and free institutions. The war in Cuba has for its only object the overthrow of Spanish power, and to establish an independent republic, under whose beneficent laws the Spaniards may continue to live side by side with the Cubans as members of the same community and citizens of the same nation. This is our programme and we strictly adhere to it.
"The revolution is powerful and deeply rooted in the hearts of the Cuban people, and there is no Spanish power, no power in the world, that can stop its march. The war, since General Weyler took command of the Spanish army, has assumed a cruel character. His troops shoot the Cuban prisoners, pursue and kill the sick and wounded, assassinate the unarmed, and burn their houses. The Cuban troops, on their part, destroy, as a war measure, the machinery and buildings of the sugar plantations and are firmly resolved not to leave one stone upon another during their campaign.
"Let those who can put an end to this war reflect that our liberty is being gained with the blood of thousands of Cuban victims, among whom is numbered Jose Marti, the apostle and martyr of our revolution. Let them consider that before the sacred memory of this new redeemer there is not a single Cuban who will withdraw from the work of emancipation without feeling ashamed of abandoning the flag which on the 24th of February, 1895, was raised by the beloved master.
"It is time for the Cuban people to satisfy their just desire for a place among the free nations of the world and let them not be accused if to accomplish their noble purpose they are obliged to reduce to ashes the Cuban land.
Tomas Estrada Palma."
Cuban Refugees in Key West—Their Devotion to the Cause—Peculiarities of the Town—Odd Sights and Sounds—Filibusters andTheir Work—The First Authorized Expedition—It Is a Failure—TheSecond More Successful—Landing Supplies for the Insurgents—Captain Jose Lacret, and Some of His Adventures.
The island of Key West lies sixty miles south of Cape Sable, the most southerly point of the mainland of Florida, and is seven miles long and from one to two miles broad. The city covers nearly one-half of the island and has a population of about 25,000. Key West has been described as being "to Cuba what Gibraltar is to Ceuta, to the Gulf of Mexico what Gibraltar is to the Mediterranean." It is one of the chief naval stations of the United States and is strongly fortified.
The most important industry is the making of cigars, which gives employment to thousands of Cubans, who make up a large majority of the population, and many of whom are refugees, charged with political crimes, with a price set upon their heads. One of the most important divisions of the Cuban Junta of the United States has its headquarters here. Almost every Cuban in Key West gives regularly a portion of his earnings to the cause, and many cargoes of arms, ammunition and supplies have been sent to the insurgents by their brethren on this little island. The city is unique in many respects. It is made up of innumerable little wooden houses, without chimneys, but crowded in irregular groups. Many of the houses have wooden shutters in place of glass windows.
On most of the streets there are no sidewalks, but people stumble over the jagged edges of coral rock. There are a great number of public vehicles, and one can be hailed at any corner and engaged for 10 cents. Some of these carriages are quite respectable in appearance. They are generally double-seated affairs, which have been discarded in the north. The horses are wrecks, and they show by their appearance that fodder is dear and that they are not half fed.
One of the sounds of Key West is the whacking of the horses which draw the carriages and the mules which move the street cars from place to place.
The street cars look as if they had been dug up from the neighborhood of the pyramids. Ropes are used for reins, and the only substantial thing about the whole outfit is the great rawhide whip, with which the street-car driver labors incessantly. The people, as a rule, are opposed to excessive exertion, but they make an exception in the case of labor with a whip.
The town has one struggling newspaper, which is worthy of a better support. It is told of the editor that he came to Key West a barefooted boy from Georgia, and worked his way up to his present eminent position of instructor in etiquette and ethics to the four hundred.
Hundreds of dogs, cats, roosters, goats, and "razorbacks" run at large through the streets, and the three former combine to make night hideous. In the early evening the sound of negro meetings and jubilations predominates. Then the cats begin where the shouters leave off. Later, the dogs, sneaking and sore-eyed, and more numerous than any other species, take up the refrain. They howl and bark and keep on howling and barking, until sleep seems impossible. At last, when the wakeful man thinks the row is over, the roosters, the meanest, skinniest, loudest-mouthed roosters in the world, continue the serenade until death seems a welcome, especially the death of the roosters.
There is a strange mixture of races at Key West, but the negroes are the most patriotic class. They alone celebrate the Fourth of July and other national holidays. While the town has its enlightened and respectable people, it also has a shoddy class, whose ignorance of the rest of the world carries them to grotesque extremes in their efforts to proclaim their greatness.
Even in its schools Key West is peculiar. The schoolhouses are built like cigar factories, and each has mounted upon the roof the bell of an old locomotive. When the school bells are ringing it is easy to close your eyes and imagine yourself in one of the great railway depots of the north.
Prior to the commencement of our war with Spain the United States authorities kept a close watch on the Cubans in Key West, and made every effort to prevent the shipment of supplies to the insurgents. But as soon as the conflict was begun there was a change in the policy and the government assisted the work in every possible way. The first expedition was a failure. Under command of Captain Dorst of the United States army the transport steamer Gussie sailed from Key West with two companies of infantry on board, in charge of 7,000 rifles and 200,000 rounds of ammunition, intended for the insurgents of Pinar del Rio. The supplies were to be conveyed to General Gomez by a force of insurgents encamped three miles back from the coast.
But the cargo was not landed, for the reason that the insurgents were unable to meet the landing party at the rendezvous, and Captain Dorst was compelled to return to Key West with his cargo. The second attempt was more successful. Nearly 400 men, with a pack train and a large quantity of arms and ammunition, sailed on the Plant line steamer Florida from Key West, on the night of May 21. These men and the equipment constituted an expedition able to operate independently and to defend itself against any body of Spanish troops which might oppose it.
The expedition was under the command of Captain Jose Lacret, formerly insurgent commander in Matanzas province. He assumed the direction of affairs immediately on the landing of the expedition. Until then General Joaquin Castillo was in control.
In the landing of the expedition the United States army was represented by Captain J. A. Dorst, and Tomas Estrada Palma was represented by J. E. Cartaya, who has been the landing agent of nearly every filibustering expedition for more than a year. Messrs. Castillo, Cartaya and Dorst returned to Key West. General Julio Sanguilly, on his way to report to General Maximo Gomez, was also on the boat.
This was the most powerful anti-Spanish expedition sent to Cuba up to that date. About 300 of the men were Cubans, the others Americans. The engineer corps of the expedition was composed entirely of Americans under Aurelian Ladd.
The men were dressed in canvas uniforms furnished by the United States government, and the commissary department had rations enough to last fifteen days after the landing. The pack train consisted of seventy-five mules and twenty-five horses. The expedition carried 7,000 rifles and 3,000,000 rounds of ammunition for General Calixto Garcia.
General Sanguilly's return to Cuba is a remarkable incident in his extraordinary career. His gallant services in the Ten Years' War, his arrest in Havana at the beginning of the present insurrection, his sentence to death and his release at the intercession of Secretary Sherman on a promise to remain outside of Cuba have made him a conspicuous man.
The expedition was convoyed by the cruiser Marblehead, the torpedo-boat destroyer Eagle and other warships. Two younger brothers of the late General Nestor Aranguren are with the expedition.
When the present revolution in Cuba began General Jose Lacret Morlot, by which title he is popularly known, secured passage on the steamer Mascotte for Jamaica on his way to Cuba. The English government had information regarding Lacret's movements and prevented his sailing for Cuba from Jamaica. He then went to Mexico and later to New York. At the latter place he consulted with the junta and returned to Tampa. Here he embarked on the steamer Olivette for Havana in the garb of a priest.
Still in this disguise he boarded a train for Sagua la Grande. Accompanying him were a large number of Spanish soldiers. His being highly educated, a man of good presence and a "padre" were sufficient to give him entrance into the best Spanish society of Sagua la Grande. Lacret stopped at the finest hotel, and when in the cafe sat at the alcalde's right hand.
After communicating with the insurgents the "padre" suddenly disappeared from the hotel. He joined the insurgents, and, throwing off his priestly disguise, has since performed valorous service for the cause of Cuban freedom. He was transferred to the province of Matanzas soon after his arrival, and his career there will form an interesting chapter in the history of Cuba. From Matanzas province he was sent to the eastward as a delegate to the assembly held in Puerto Principe last February, at which the new government was formed. From this assembly he was directed to come to this country as a bearer of dispatches to the junta.
When the Florida, escorted by the Osceola, drew up close to the shore at the place selected for the landing, she sent scouts to see if all was clear. These scouts were greeted by Generals Feria and Rojas, with about 1,500 armed insurgents. Therefore, far from there being any hostile demonstration upon the part of the Spaniards, the landing of the expedition was in the nature of a triumphal invasion. The Cubans, who were in waiting for the party, had a brass band and welcomed the newcomers with national airs.
The work of unloading the cargo of the Florida was promptly begun and carried on by the 432 men composing the expedition. There was nothing in the nature of interruption and the work was soon finished.
While the cargo was being unloaded the Osceola, an auxiliary gunboat, with her guns ready for action, scouted about the vicinity looking for an enemy. But the Spaniards apparently had no suspicion of what was taking place. So easily was the dangerous mission accomplished that while some members of the party were getting the supplies ashore others were providing themselves with fruit, sugar and other products of the landing place, a large stock of which was brought back for Key West friends.
The moment the work was concluded the Florida and the Osceola slipped away, leaving the insurgents to convey their re-enforcements into the interior, which was done without any casualty.
The returning members of the Florida party brought with them several hundred private letters, which give a complete insight into the conditions prevailing in the blockaded island.
The Beginning of the Revolt—Martial Law Declared in Santiago andMatanzas—Arrival of Campos—The Blacks as Soldiers—No CastePrejudices—General Santocildes Killed—A Story of Maceo—Campos'Campaign Fails—He Returns to Spain.
It was the intention of the insurgents to begin operations in the six provinces on the same date, but at the appointed time three of them failed to carry out the plan, and in only one was the aspect at all threatening. In Havana and Matanzas the Spanish officials had no difficulty in suppressing the insurrectionists, and the leader in the former province, the editor of a newspaper, accepted a pardon and returned to his work.
In Santiago, however, which is thinly settled, the movement gained ground steadily. The landing of a party of revolutionists from San Domingo aroused the patriots, and were welcomed warmly, being supplied with re-enforcements wherever they appeared. The government professed to be merely annoyed, nothing more, and pretended to look upon the patriots as mere brigands. Calleja became alarmed at last when the determination of the insurgents became known, and proclaimed martial law in Santiago and Matanzas, and sent forces to both provinces. He could put only nine thousand men in the field, however, and had only seven gunboats for coast duty at his command. The commissary arrangements were miserable, and frequently caused the interruption of important movements. The insurgents were most ubiquitous, and would appear here and there without the slightest warning, making raids on plantations, which they plundered, and from which they enticed away the laborers, disappearing in the swamps, where pursuit was impossible, and appearing again in a day or so in some unexpected spot, and repeating the same maneuvers. In this manner they terrorized the loyalists, and ruined their prospects of raising a crop, and as many depended solely upon the soil for their living this method of warfare struck them a vital blow.
At the end of March, 1895, Antonio Maceo, with sixteen comrades, sailed from Costa Rica and landed at Baracoa, on the eastern end of the island. They were surprised by a Spanish cavalry, but kept up an intermittent fight for several hours, when Maceo managed to elude his enemies and escape. After living in the woods for ten days, making his way westward, he met a party of rebels, was recognized and welcomed with great enthusiasm. He took command of the insurgents in the neighborhood and began to get recruits rapidly. He engaged in several sharp encounters with the Spanish and did such effective service that the moral effect was noticed immediately. He and his brother Jose were made generals.
About the middle of April Maximo Gomez and Jose Marti landed from San Domingo at about the same point where the Maceos had landed. For days they were obliged to secrete themselves in a cave on account of the presence of the enemy's pickets, but they finally reached an insurgent camp, and Gomez entered upon his duties as commander-in-chief. The insurgents now had an experienced leader at their head, re-enforcements poured in, and they soon had a force of six thousand men.
The government had issued new calls for troops, and in April no less than twenty-five thousand men were raised. Martinez Campos came over from Spain, arriving at Santiago on April 16, and went at once to Havana, where he relieved Calleja as captain-general. Campos was a veteran, and expected to crush the insurrection at once, but day by day his task grew more difficult.
Gomez and Maceo, instead of being driven hither and thither, led Campos a dance, and he was prevented from solidifying the two trochas he had formed. Gomez never attempted pitched battles or sieges, but harassed the enemy in every way possible, cutting off their convoys, picking them off in detail, getting up night alarms, and in every way annoying them. His hardened soldiers, especially the negroes, could stand hardships and still keep in good fighting condition, but with the Europeans, what between yellow fever and the constant alarms of war, it was a different story. No European soldier could live under the hardships and exposures which seemed to put life into the negro soldiers.
It must be understood that there is no caste feeling between the negro and the pure-blooded Cuban. They march, eat and sleep side by side. Moreover, the negroes make excellent soldiers, with finer physique than the Cubans themselves, and equal powers of endurance.
The Cuban is small in stature compared to the American soldier, but he is well set up, wiry, and apparently has unlimited staying powers. He frequently lives on one meal a day, and that a poor one, but he shows no signs whatever of being ill-fed; in fact, he seems to thrive on it, and he has an uncomfortable habit of marching six hours in the morning on an empty stomach, which would be fatal to the ordinary Anglo-Saxon.
About the first of July, Maceo, still in the province of Santiago, concentrated the forces in the Holguin district and moved against Bayamo, capturing one provision train after another that were en route to that place. Campos took fifteen hundred men, with General Santocildes second in command, and went to the relief of Bayamo. About the middle of July he was attacked several miles from Bayamo by Maceo with twenty-seven hundred rebels. He and his entire staff narrowly escaped capture, and only the bravery of General Santocildes averted this catastrophe. The brave general lost his life and the Spaniards were forced to fly, after having fought for five hours, surrounded on all sides by the rebels. They finally made their escape to Bayamo, the rear guard covering their retreat with great difficulty.
Flor Crombet had fallen in battle several weeks before this fight and Marti had been killed in an insignificant fight at Dos Rios. Gomez had passed into Camaguay to add fire to the insurrection and Maceo had been left in command in the province of Santiago. To him was Campos indebted for his defeat. He escaped capture as if by intuition. A new snare had been spread for him by Maceo after the death of Santocildes, and he was already within its meshes, when, intuitively divining the situation, he came to an about face and fled to Bayamo by an unused road, covered by impassable thickets in the rear of Maceo's victorious troops.
The Spaniards were rapidly re-enforced after the escape to Bayamo, and Maceo, with Quintin Bandero, began to fall back to his impregnable mountain retreat at Jarahuica. This was in the heart of Santiago de Cuba, over a hundred miles east of Bayamo and twenty-five miles northeast of the port of Santiago. His war-worn army needed rest, recruits, and supplies. Once in his mountain fastness, he was perfectly secure, as no Spanish army would trust itself in the rocky range. News of his movements had reached Santiago and a strenuous effort was being made to head him off at San Luis, a railroad town fifteen miles north-west of that city. Nothing, however, escaped the observation of the Cuban general. With wonderful prescience he anticipated the movements of the Spaniards. His troopers were armed with machetes and the infantry with rifles and ammunition captured at Paralejo. Bandera commanded this band of blacks. The march had been terrific, and horses and men were nearly fagged. With sparse supplies the pace had been kept up for hours. The sun had gone down and the moon was flooding the fronds of the palms with pale, silvery light. Maceo held a short conference with Quintin Bandera, and not long afterward the blacks wheeled in column and disappeared.
Meantime the Cuban cavalry continued its course. By midnight it had reached Cemetery Hill, overlooking the town of San Luis. The moon was half way down the sky. Maceo sat upon his horse surveying the scene below him long and silently. The little town was aglow with electric lights and the whistle of locomotives resounded in the valley. Over three thousand Spanish troops were quartered in the town and their movements were plainly discernible. Trains were arriving hourly from Santiago, bearing strong re-enforcements. Through a field-glass Maceo watched the stirring scene. He turned the glass beyond the town and gazed through it patiently, betraying a trace of anxiety. Finally he alighted and conferred with Colonel Miro, his chief of staff. A moment afterward came the order to dismount. Three hundred troopers obeyed and were about to tether their horses when they were called to attention. A second order reached their ears. They were told to stand motionless, with both feet on the ground, and to await further orders with their right hands' on their saddles. In the moonlight beneath the scattered palms they stood as silent as if petrified.
Among them there was a newspaper correspondent who had known Maceo many years, and who had parted with him at Port Limon, in Central America, a few months before. He had joined the column just after the battle of Paralejo. In obedience to orders he stood with his arm over the back of his horse, blinking at the enlivening scene below him. Exhausted by the day's march, his eyes closed and he found it impossible to keep awake. A moment later he fastened the bridle to his foot, wrapped himself in his rubber coat, placed a satchel under his head, and fell asleep in the wet grass. The adjutant soon awoke him, telling him that he had better get up, as they were going to have a fight. He thanked the adjutant, who told him there were over three thousand Spanish soldiers in San Luis and that it was surrounded with fourteen blockhouses. The correspondent soon curled himself on the grass a second time and was in a sound slumber, when he was again aroused by the adjutant, who told him he was in positive danger if he persisted in disobeying the order of General Maceo. A third time his heavy eyelids closed and he was in a dead sleep, when startled by a peremptory shake. Jesus Mascons, Maceo's secretary, stood over him. "Get up this instant," said he. "The general wants to see you immediately."
In a few seconds the correspondent was on his feet. The whistles were still blowing and the electric lights still glowing in the valley, and the moon was on the horizon. He went forward in some trepidation, fancying that the general was going to upbraid him for disobeying his orders. He was surprised to find him very pleasant. Maceo always spoke in a low tone, as he had been shot twice through the lungs.
"Are you not hungry?" he asked.
"No," the correspondent replied, wondering what was in the wind.
"I thought possibly you might want something to eat," General Maceo said, with a smile. "I have a boiled egg here and I want to divide it with you." As he uttered these words he drew out his machete and cut the egg straight through the center. Passing half of it to the correspondent, he said: "Share it; it will do you good." The newspaper man thanked the general and they ate the egg in silence. He said afterward that the incident reminded him of General Marion's breakfast with a British officer. He had read the incident in Peter Parley's history of the revolution, when a schoolboy. Marion raked a baked sweet potato out of the ashes of a camp fire and divided it with his British guest. The officer regretted the absence of salt, and the correspondent said he experienced the same regret when he ate his portion of General Maceo's egg.
After munching the egg both men sat for some time observing the stirring scene in the valley below them. The moon had gone down, but in the glow of the electric lights they could see that the activity among the Spaniards was as great as ever. Suddenly Maceo turned to the correspondent and said abruptly: "Were you asleep when Jesus called you?"
"Oh, no," the correspondent replied, "I was not asleep; I was only just tired—that was all."
The general looked at him searchingly and then said: "Don't worry; it is all right. We are going through that town in a few minutes. There may be a fierce fight, and you will need a clear head. The egg will give you strength."
Within twenty minutes the little columns of three hundred men were on the move. They led their horses down the hill about an hour before daybreak, with the general in the lead. Silently and stealthily they entered the outskirts of the town. The columns passed two blockhouses without being observed and at the break of day were beyond the town on the main road to Banabacoa. Meantime the Spaniards had discovered them. The town was aroused and a hundred and fifty Spanish cavalry headed the pursuit. The road wound through fields of cane. A strong column of Spanish infantry followed the cavalry. Maceo held his men in reserve and continued his march, the Spanish troopers trailing after them like so many wildcats.
Suddenly, to their astonishment, Quintin Bandera's infantry arose on either side of the road and almost annihilated the pursuing column. Those who escaped alarmed the columns of infantry, who returned to San Luis to fortify themselves. Maceo and Bandera camped on the estate of Mejorana, about six miles away. It was here that Marti, Gomez, the two Maceos, Crombet, Guerra, and Rabi met not long before this to inaugurate the new revolution. Bandera and Maceo found plenty of provisions at the estate, but no bread. A small Cuban boy was sent to the Spanish commander at San Luis with a note requesting him to be so kind as to send some bread to visitors at the Mejorana plantation. The boy delivered the note and the Spanish commander asked who sent him. Without a moment's hesitation he replied: "General Maceo." The Spanish official laughed and replied: "Very well, a supply of bread will be sent. It will not be necessary for Maceo to come after it." What is more remarkable is the fact that Maceo told the correspondent beforehand that the bread would be sent, as the Spaniards had been so frightened by Bandera on the previous day that they did not want to invite another attack. That very evening the boy returned, conveying many bags of bread. The Spaniards remained within the town until Maceo had rested his army and departed for Jarahuica.
Before the end of the year Campos' campaign was admitted to be a failure. He could not depart from his humane policy, however, and at the beginning of the year 1896 he returned to Spain. The rabid Spaniards of Havana, having compelled Campos to tender his resignation, demanded from Canovas a captain-general framed in the old iron cast of the Spanish conquerors, not to fight battles and risk his life in the field, but to exterminate the native population. In their belief, women, children, everyone born in Cuba, should be held responsible for the situation. They did not like a soldier with a gallant career and personal courage. They wanted an executioner. Canovas satisfied them and appointed Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau to succeed Martinez Campos.
The question may be asked why the insurgents after so many victories did not invest the city of Havana, and end therewith the Spanish dominion. The answer is very clear. After the battle of Coliseo General Gomez reviewed his troops and found that each soldier had only three cartridges. The Cubans in the United States were making vain efforts to send a big expedition to the insurgents, but the policy of our government was non-interference, and they were checked in their plans. At Guira de Helena, on January 4, 1896, the Cubans had to fight with their machetes to enter the Province of Havana.
If history does not afford a parallel of the stern resolution displayed by the Cubans to die or to win in a struggle with all the odds against them, neither does it present a case of stubborn resistance to justice and human rights, and of barbarous cruelty, which equals the record of Spain in Cuba.