autonomy; with others, complete independence; and with a third element, annexation to the United States. All were united, however, in a burning desire to terminate the rule of Spain over their native land.

For some time previous to the proclamation of the Governor-General, arms and ammunition had been shipped to Cuba from various American ports and were secreted in different parts of the Island. Several local outbreaks had presaged the approaching storm, which burst in March. Before the close of April, the brothers Maceo, Jose Marti, and Maximo Gomez had returned to Cuba and resumed their respective places at the head of the rebel ranks. Close upon their heels arrived Martinez Campos, who had effected the peace at Zanjon, to take the part of Governor-General.

Without delay, the insurgent generals set about carrying out the shrewd design of spreading the rebellion over every part of the Island. Their object was not only to increase the difficulties of the Spaniards, but also to give the uprising as formidable an aspect as possible, in the hope of securing the recognition, if not the intervention, of the United States.

General Campos entered upon his task with

the hope of bringing about a cessation of the insurrection by means of conciliatory measures. One of his first acts was to issue a manifesto to the rebels, offering pardon to all such as should lay down their arms and resume their allegiance to the Crown of Spain. In his proclamation of martial law he enjoined upon his troops the observance of the recognized principles of humane warfare.

Within a week of his arrival, General Campos took command of the troops in the field. A period of desultory fighting ensued and, at length, in the middle of July, the first serious action of the war took place. The Spaniards in force met a body of insurgents near Bayamo. Probably there were about three thousand on either side. The insurgents had the better of the engagement, which was hotly contested, and General Campos narrowly escaped the loss of his life.

Followed months of skirmishing, in which the rebels attacked isolated garrisons with considerable success, but avoided encounters with large bodies of troops. Meanwhile, numerous filibustering expeditions disembarked with recruits and munitions of war, greatly strengthening the revolutionary movement. By the end

VIEW OF BAIRE, NEAR BAYAMO, FROM THE CUBAN TRENCHES.

of the summer, eighty thousand Spanish regulars, besides a number of volunteers and guerrillas, were in the field. The insurgent forces did not exceed twenty thousand men, a considerable proportion of whom were armed only with machetes. But the Spaniards shortly learned to dread this weapon more than the rifle.

Before the close of the year dynamite and the torch were brought into play. The revolutionists began, at first with discrimination, to burn plantations and to blow up bridges. On the other side the Spaniards commenced to execute insurgent chiefs who were captured.

In December the march to the west was vigorously pushed by Gomez and Maceo, whilst Campos employed all his resources in the effort to intercept it. The result was a series of technical movements in which the Spanish troops, although led by generals of experience, were usually worsted. Detached bodies of insurgents harassed the royalist commands, and diverted their attention, while Maceo steadily pushed westward, gathering recruits in his progress and leaving a train of active rebellion in his wake. The trochas, or trenches, strung with fortlets, to which the Spaniards resorted