to take advantage of the opportunity to throw off the Spanish yoke.

The governor of Bayamo was on terms of great personal intimacy with Cespedes and Aguilera, and upon receipt of an order from Havana for their arrest, privately notified them of the fact before taking any action in the premises. Immediately thereafter, on the 10th of October, Cespedes collected together some two hundred of his followers and took possession of the small village of Yara, proclaiming the Republic. He freed his slaves at once, as did his constant companion and coadjutor Aguilera, and sent out messengers to the various lodges, exhorting the members to rally to his standard. He soon found himself at the head of two thousand men, a motley crowd armed with rifles, machetes, fowling-pieces, muskets of a past age, and other antiquated arms, and yet as fierce and determined a band of warriors as ever shouted the battlecry of Freedom. He quickly advanced on Bayamo, which place was garrisoned by only a few Spanish soldiers, and the town surrendering without resistance, he established there his capital and provisional government. It is perhaps needless to add that his friend the governor was treated with every consideration.

There were at this time residing in Puerto Principe, the capital of the central department, a large number of young men, sons of wealthy families, highly educated and traveled, accustomed to all athletic exercises, magnificent horsemen, expert swordsmen, and "dead shots" either with the pistol or rifle. These had encountered in their travels

the fierce, impracticable Red-Republicans of Europe, to whom the French Revolution, with all its accompanying horrors, is a sacred memory, and had become imbued with the spirit of these men, who have no religion but what is embodied in the elevation of the people; who laugh when you say "this people cannot govern themselves," and ask, "To whom then has the good God given the right to govern, and where is the record of his will?"-who believe that the end justifies the means, and who allow nothing that is called crime to stand in the way of a great purpose. With the news of the coming revolution in Spain, and a knowledge of the projected outbreak in the Island, these young men held meetings of their so-called Philharmonic Society in the city of Puerto Principe,-with scarce an attempt at concealment,-in which the great mass eagerly urged an immediate resort to the field. moment seemed especially favorable. It was confidently announced that the Junta of Habana had completed a plan for securing the autonomy of the Island, backed by Spanish bayonets. It was argued that the revolution would prove neither difficult nor dangerous, and that its accomplishment would be the work of not more than fifteen days; that the few troops in the Island only desired a release from service, and that, owing to the disturbed condition of affairs in Spain, no more could be sent; that the resident Spaniards devoted to industrial pursuits would make no resistance as long as their persons and property were respected; that the countenance, and, if necessary, the material aid of the United States would be

The

given to the cause, and that a fleet of privateers, monitors, and other first-class warvessels, under the Peruvian and Chilian flags, would sweep the Spanish navy out of existence and destroy Spanish commerce. The timid ones, who dreaded emancipation and its effects on the agricultural interests, were quieted by the assurance that stringent vagabond laws would still retain the freedmen upon the estates as laborers.

The voices of those who urged a postponement of the outbreak until they were better prepared were unheeded in the whirl of excitement. Messengers from Cespedes began to arrive, bringing news of continued successes, which added to the enthusiasm, and soon the Camagueyans-as the natives of Puerto Principe are called-began to leave the city in groups, and with scarce any preconcert of action found themselves in the field and in opposition to the government. They took possession of the line of railroad with a view of capturing certain arms whichas they were notified from Havana-had been sent by the government to the department; and afterwards, by strategy, succeeded in getting all the locomotives into their hands. Like wild-fire the revolution spread through the eastern and central departments. The petty Spanish garrisons could not stand before the fierce energy of the patriots, and were driven to the coast, or huddled together in a few interior towns, with the enemy all around them, and on the 1st of January, 1869, the Cubans held possession of more than one-half the Island, with numerous small cities such as Bayamo, Guaimaro, Sibanicú Cascorro, and others. Then was realized the fatal want of preparation. The

DULCE

revolutionists were without arms requisite to capture the sea-port towns, and to hold them against the formidable war-vessels of! Spain, and so were compelled to be content with the advantages gained, and to wait.

At the time of the revolution in Spain in 1868 and the subsequent outbreak in Cuba, General Lersundi, a life long supporter of the Bourbons, was Captain-General at Havana. Though opposed to the Spanish revolution, he rightly considered it his first duty to preserve the Island to Spain, and he adopted the best measures in his power for the accomplishment of that end. There were at the time but ten thousand troops scattered over the Island, and these, without the aid of the navy, could not have held the fortified towns on the coast for a day. Indeed it may fairly be stated, that had the Cubans been at all prepared for the struggle upon which they had entered, and been guided by competent leaders, they could easily have seized the fortifications defending the various cities, and obtained such advantages as would have enabled them to dictate terms to the government. The number of able-bodied Spaniards residing in the Island was not far from 200,ooo, who, though engaged in the various branches of industry and intent on accumulating property, were intensely patriotic to the mother country.

Lersundi, with a quick appreciation of the dangers before him, realizing that in the unsettled condition of Spain he could not expect immediate aid from her, immediately organized these Spaniards into battalions and armed them with the most approved weapons. In a few weeks the Cubans found themselves confronted by a large and well-appointed army, which, though it might not be eager to take the field against them, could hold the cities and fortifications for the government.

These Spanish volunteers of Cuba, though they have acquired a reputation by no means enviable, are as fine a body of citizen soldiery as can be found in any country. Their hatred toward the Cubans at the commencement of the insurrection was intense, incited not only by political antagonism, but also by the contemptuous treatment they habitually received prior to the outbreak. For the most part of very humble origin, a hardworking, thrifty race, they were socially looked down upon by the Creoles with much the same hauteur with which the Cavalier regarded the Roundheads.

The course pursued by the volunteers during the first months of the insurrection and of their organization forced many of the more

CATALAN VOLUNTEERS.

228. soon after nightfall, large numbers of them secreted themselves in the ditch fronting the old wall near the Theater building. One of their number entered the saloon, with instructions to fire his pistol as a signal the moment a treasonable word was uttered. Scarce had the play begun when the sound of the explosion floated out on the tropical night, and an armed mob of more than two hundred men, maddened with bigotry and rage, poured in volley after volley upon the hapless audience. In vain Spanish officers, who were present, tried to control the enraged assassins; the pitiless fire continued, and the young and the lovely, men and women, fell dead or grievously wounded, until an opening was made through the side of the frail building and the people were enabled to disperse.

prominent Cubans, who were desirous of maintaining their allegiance to Spain, into the ranks of the insurgents. At the breaking out of the insurrection, the great majority of the leading Creoles in Havana were in favor of accepting such reforms as would remedy their grievances, and of continuing under the flag of Spain. All the reforms demanded were readily promised, but, in view of the many promises theretofore made and broken, some guarantee was demanded. This, under the peculiar condition of Spain and the Island, was difficult, and yet it is probable that an arrangement of this sort might have been made, and Cubans of great prominence and influence would have used their endeavors for peace, had it not been for the efforts of those who occasioned the outbreak of Yara, who determined to make such a breach between the natives and Spaniards in the capital of the Island that any reconciliation should be impossible. To this end a series of dramatic performances were instituted at the Villanueva Theater, in which the Spaniards and the Spanish flag were grossly insulted. The first and second of these, which took place on the evenings of the 20th and 21st of January, 1869, passed off without any disturbance; but the volunteers, who had been organized and armed, determined to third be attempted. O

e should a

After this a veritable reign of terror commenced; other buildings were fired into by volunteers as they marched along the streets; assassinations became alarmingly frequent, and rumors of a contemplated massacre of every native became current. As the result, a general exodus of Cubans to the United States took place, particularly of the more prominent, who were thus driven into rebellion against the government and to the assistance of their brothers in the field.

While the volunteer organizations referred to were formed for the especial purpose of protecting the cities, others were organized and mobilized for service in the field. Joined to these were a few hundred troops, making a force in all of 2,200 men, which were under command of Count Valmaseda, then the second officer in the colonial government, called Segundo Cabo.

Aware that many of the Cuban leaders in the field were opposed to initiating a war at present against the government, Valmaseda again tendered the reforms. A meeting was held at Las Minas, on the line of railroad between Puerto Principe and Nuevitas, to consider his proposition, but after an exciting discussion the assembly declared itself for war.

So anxious was the Spanish government

at this time to avoid the insurrection and to bring about a compromise, that another and more important step towards conciliation was soon after made. On the fourth of January, 1869, there arrived in Havana Señor Don Domingo Dulce y Garay, Marquis of Castellflorite, sent out by the provisional government of Spain to supersede Lersundi as Captain-General. As he had occupied this position in previous years and was very popular with the Cubans, he arrived in the full conviction that his presence would restore peace. He at once issued an amnesty proclamation releasing all offenders against the national integrity, and giving the insurgents without exception forty days in which to lay down. their arms. He granted the right of meeting, the freedom of the press,-only restricting discussions on the slavery question and on religion, as dangerous to society under the then existing state of affairs,-and sent a commission composed chiefly of Cubans to confer with the insurgent leaders and tender the olive branch. Among the more prominent leaders of this commission were Señor Don José de Armas y Cespedes, a well-known journalist and nephew of the Cuban president, Don Hortensio Tamayo, and Ramon Rodriguez Correa, and by them the negotiations were principally conducted. The commissioners were carried by a Spanish war-vessel to the larger cities on the coast, from whence they went to the interior and held conferences with Cespedes and all of the prominent insurrectionary chiefs. They found among them and among the people such an intensity of enthusiasm in favor of a war of independence that their efforts to control or check it proved abortive. Indeed, it was more than whispered that these efforts were not very strenuous, and that the influence of at least a portion of the commission was for war rather than peace. Color was given to this suspicion by the fact that certain of its members were furnished their passports to leave the Island immediately on their return to Havana, and Dulce openly declared that he had been deceived. In response to the commissioners Cespedes stated that he would enter into no negotiations whatever save with a duly authorized and publicly acknowledged agent of the government, as he could depend on no terms agreed upon or upon any immunity to himself and followers save through such a one, and so the matter ended. The Spanish residents meanwhile looked on in moody silence, hating the Spaniard who would make any compromise with their enemies and hopeless of peace. The political

offenders who had been released regarded the action of the government as a sign of weakness and continued to conspire. The amnesty was despised and rejected, and so the forty days passed away.

It was during these days that terror, agita tion, and gloom hung like a thick cloud over Havana. The enmity between the native and Spanish population was deadly. The volunteers, whether on duty or otherwise, paraded the streets arms in hand, and were not slow to use them. Some of the worst among them, and these not a few, maddened with drink, compelled every passenger on the street to cry Viva España! on pain of death. The Cuban residents, deprived of their arms, save such as they could retain secretly, wreaked vengeance on their oppressors from hiding. places, and nightly the streets were stained with blood. Men were shot dead for refusing or hesitating to utter a cry in favor of the national integrity. Women were horribly maltreated for wearing a ribbon whose color indicated a sympathy for the insurgent cause, or allowing the hair to fall over the back called by the Spaniards "à la Cespedes." The authorities were powerless. Dulce issued a proclamation calling on the citizens to maintain order, but in vain. The few regu lars in the city, the sailors and marines, were stationed in different localities, but to no purpose, as they had become imbued with the same spirit that affected the volunteers Large numbers of people appeared at the various consulates seeking protection, and vehicles of every description loaded with baggage and furniture were seen moving to ward the wharf, sent by people only anxious

to escape from a city apparently given over to O destruction. The mass of the Cubans who could get away abandoned the city and fled to the United States.

After the term of amnesty, Dulce, though sickened and disheartened at the result of his policy of conciliation, could not give it over entirely. The liberties granted were withdrawn, however; and by a few instances of severity, by sending a number of conspirators to the garrote, and by banishing to Fernando Po some three hundred Cubans of wealth and influence who were known to be in sympa thy with the insurrection, he endeavored to obtain the good-will of the Spanish residents; to no purpose, however, and on the 2d of June the volunteers, who had all the power in their hands, compelled him to turn over the command to his second officer, and immediately afterward he sailed for Spain. With the withdrawal of Dulce ended that policy of conciliation by means of which Spain had fondly hoped to restore peace to her revolted colony, and to avoid the immense drain upon her already depleted treasury which a war must necessarily involve.

After his unsuccessful attempt at compromise, Gen. Valmaseda started with his entire force for Nuevitas, and then commenced the first real fighting of the war. The Cubans, though far outnumbering his forces, were not provided with the requisite arms and ammunition to offer him battle, and so contented

themselves with hovering near his column and firing upon it from the woods, the canefields, and every locality which afforded concealment and protection. So effective was this mode of operation that the General was compelled to abandon his road and turn off to San Miguel, a small village upon the Bay of Baga, a short distance from his original destination. Here he rested and recruited his shattered battalions, and having obtained the requisite supplies, started on his march through the chief insurrectionary district, with Bayamo for his objective point. He passed through and partially destroyed Guaimaro and Sibanicú. Harassed all the way, and after a hard-fought battle on the banks of the river Cauto, he reached his destination to find the city abandoned by Cespedes and burned. The Cubans closed in behind him as he passed through the country, and his march resulted in no advantage to the government.

In April, 1869, the Cuban headquarters were established at Guaimaro. A house of representatives was convened and a regular government established with the following officers: President, Carlos Manuel Cespedes ; vice-president, Francisco Aguilera (who also held the position of secretary of state and war); assistant secretary of war, Pedro Figuerdo; commander-in-chief of all the forces, Manuel Quesada. A constitution modeled after that of the United States was adopted.

Certainly there was never a more curious