which to comply with the demands. Before the three days expired the Spanish Minister at Washington asked for his passports and departed, and the Spanish government notified General Woodford that diplomatic relations between the two countries were at an end. He thereupon took his passports and departed. It should be added that on April 21 the Autonomist government of Cuba issued a proclamation to the people of the island, urging them to unite in support of the Spanish government in its resistance to the war of conquest which the United States was about to wage for the seizure and annexation of the island. The success of the United States, it added, would mean that Cuba would be subjugated, dominated and absorbed by an alien race, opposed to Cubans in temperament, traditions, language, religion and customs.

Thus the War of Independence entered a new and final phase, with the armed might of the United States assisting that Cuban cause the success of which had already become practically certain. The Cuban army rapidly grew in numbers and improved in morale, and was of course abundantly supplied with arms and ammunition, while the sending of reenforcements and supplies to the Spaniards was interfered with by the United States navy. As soon as the state of war began three United States agents were sent to Cuba, to investigate the condition and strength of the revolutionary army, and to arrange for its reenforcement and for cooperation between it and the American troops. Lieutenant Henry Whitney was thus sent to visit Maximo Gomez in the centre of the island; Lieutenant A. S. Rowan was sent to Oriente, and Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Dorst was sent to Pinar del Rio.

Lieutenant Whitney reached the camp of Gomez in Santa Clara Province on April 28, found affairs in a most promising state, and arranged for the prompt for

warding of supplies and of a considerable company of Cubans who had been enlisted in the United States for the revolutionary army. Gomez had an effective force of 3,000 men, and reenforcements of 750 under General Lacret, with supplies of food and munitions, were promised him. But the expeditions, in two steamers, failed to reach him, and after waiting for them on the coast for two weeks, until his supplies of food were exhausted, he was compelled to disband his army. Domingo Mendez Capote, Vice-President of the Cuban Republic, hastened to Washington, to explain to the government the urgent need of sending supplies, and as a result renewed efforts were made to land expeditions, but with little success.

The mission of Lieutenant-Colonel Dorst to Pinar del Rio was similarly unsuccessful. A few United States troops were landed under protection of the fire of gunboats, on May 12, but an attempt to deliver a great cargo of rifles and cartridges to the Cubans was defeated by the Spaniards, and the American troops were compelled to return to their ship and depart.

In Oriente Lieutenant Rowan was more successful, owing to the fact that few Spanish forces remained in that province. He found the Spanish, indeed, in possession of only the three towns of Santiago, Bayamo and Manzanillo, and the forts along the railroad; and on April 29 they evacuated Manzanillo, which was thereupon occupied by Calixto Garcia. Lieutenant Rowan reported to Washington that Garcia was able to put 8,000 efficient troops in the field, and presently considerable supplies were sent to him with little difficulty.

Perhaps the most significant information obtained by these American envoys, and particularly by Lieutenant Whitney in his visit to the Cuban Commander in Chief, was that the Cubans, while exulting in American inter

vention, did not welcome but rather deprecated American invasion of the island. Maximo Gomez said frankly that he would prefer that not a single American soldier should set foot on the island, unless it were a force of artillery, which was an arm in which the Cubans were sorely lacking. All he asked was that the United States should supply the Cubans with arms and ammunition, and prevent supplies from reaching the Spaniards. If that were done, the Cubans would do the rest, and would expel the Spanish from the island without the loss of a single drop of American blood.

The reasons for this reluctance to have American troops invade the island were chiefly two. One was a certain praiseworthy pride in Cuban achievements and a desire to retain for Cubans the credit of winning their own independence. Gomez and his comrades had been fighting to that end for years, and they wanted the satisfaction of completing the job and of gaining for Cuba herself the glory of victory. The other reason was the very natural fear that American invasion and occupation of the island would mean American annexation, or at least perpetual American domination of Cuban affairs. It seemed contrary to human nature, contrary to all the experience and examples of the past, that it should not be Of course, there was the promise in the act of intervention, that the United States would leave the government of the island to its own people. But it is probable that only a very small percentage of Cubans ever so much as heard of it, while it would be surprising if more than a small minority of those who did know of it had any real confidence that it would be fulfilled. It will be recalled that a very considerable proportion of the people of the United States regarded that pledge as mere "buncombe" and declared unhesitatingly that it would not be permitted

So.

for one moment to stand in the way of the annexation of Cuba. Truly, it would have been miraculous if Cubans had esteemed the integrity of an American promise more highly than Americans themselves.

ADMIRAL CERVERA

The first weeks of the war were confined chiefly to naval operations. A blockade of Cuban ports was established and pretty well maintained, beginning along the central and western part of the north coast on April 22. A number of small Spanish vessels were captured, and there were some bombardments of shore towns and exchanges of shots with Spanish gunboats. Despite the vigilance of the American scouts and blockading squadrons, Admiral Cervera with several powerful Spanish warships, sailing from Cadiz on April 8 and touching at Martinique on May 11, succeeded in entering the harbor of Santiago on May 19. There he was soon besieged by a more powerful American fleet under the command of Commodore, afterward Admiral, Schley; who on June 1 was joined by Admiral Sampson, who thereafter took command. Lieutenant Victor Blue was sent ashore on June 11, to make a long detour to the hills back of the city, from which he was able to see and identify the Spanish ships. Meantime Lieutenant Richmond

ADMIRAL SCHLEY

P. Hobson with seven picked men in the early morning of

June 3 took the big coal hulk Merrimac in to the narrowest part of the harbor entrance and there sunk it with a torpedo, hoping thus to block the passage and prevent Cervera's ships from coming out. The exploit was not entirely successful, the vessel not being sunk at quite the right point, though it did make exit much more difficult. Hobson and his comrades were taken prisoners by the Spaniards, but were treated with distinguished courtesy and consideration in recognition of their daring exploit. Thereafter the blockading fleet kept close watch day and night upon the harbor mouth, brilliantly illuminating it with searchlights all night, to prevent the escape of the Spanish fleet.

Meanwhile General Nelson A. Miles, commander of the United States army, was preparing for an invasion of the island. The Fifth Army Corps was organized at Tampa, Florida, under the command of Major-General William R. Shafter, and on June 14 was embarked on a fleet of 37 transports. This fleet sailed around Cape Maysi to the southern coast of Cuba, and on June 21 was off Santiago. General Shafter and Admiral Sampson went ashore to confer with General Calixto Garcia at his camp at Acerradero, and found the situation by no means as encouraging as they had hoped. Garcia had only about 3,500 Cubans in his force, and they were not all well armed, and there were 1,000 more at Guantanamo. General Shafter's army numbered fewer than 16,000 men. Against these the Spaniards under General Linares numbered about 40,000.

Averse as the Cubans had been to the landing of American troops, General Garcia accepted the inevitable, and promptly offered to place all his men under General Shafter's command. General Shafter accepted the offer, though he reminded General Garcia that he could exer