especially after outrages upon American citizens were proved; and Sagasta, when the Liberal party resumed office in Madrid, realised he must avert the threatening storm by recalling General Weyler.

The man clearly responsible for the existing state of things returned to Spain to become an important political factor there, and General Blanco reigned in his stead. The new Captain-General is a brave and humane man, esteemed highly both by Gomez and Garcia. He came to offer the reforms which might have effectively ended the struggle three years before, and he also had an open policy of mercy to institute, but it was too late. Spain's treasury was depleted, the country was ruined, and the starving reconcentrados, whom he was especially anxious to relieve, were past his help. He started zones of cultivation outside the towns, and gave them permission to pass the lines for a certain distance in search of food. The emaciated creatures that were left had not the strength to dig, the zones were useless, as few had the energy to work them, and vegetables could not be raised in time to be of service. The autonomy offered was also absolutely rejected by the insurgents. Twice before they had been duped; and after a three years' struggle and Weyler's brutalities they would not accept half-measures. Bribes were resorted to, but all were unavailing, and the prompt execution of Colonel Ruiz, who, presuming on his friendship with the Cuban leader Aranguren, went out to the rebel force and offered money and positions to all who would desert their cause and return with him, showed the determination of the Cubans to resist to the bitter end. Independence or death. I passed at this time from one end of Caba to the other, obtaining the opinions of all the leaders. I talked with the Generals, who had given up home and everything for the cause, and endured three years of the greatest hardships; I spoke with the ragged, hungry infantrymen. They were of one mind. "No surrender to the country that has so long oppressed us." One and all, suspicious of the sudden change from Weyler, who was assured by Señor Canovas that his policy was Spain's policy, and mindful of the previous assertion of "El Gran Espanol," that the last peseta and last man should go to Cuba before reforms should be granted to rebels, they frankly questioned Spain's good faith. And if the Cubans in arms refused to accept autonomy, the loyal Spaniards, the volunteers, were no less bitterly opposed to it, and threatened armed resistance against its institution in Cuba.

I passed east of the Trocha, where the Cubans practically control the interior, and have an established Government, just as the full text of President McKinley's December Message reached there. He therein urged Congress to give Spain time to test the efficacy of the autonomy decrees in restoring peace. The Message was neither a surprise nor a disappointment to the Cubans, for it was expected. Though it removed

all existing hopes of American intervention, the insurgents absolutely rejected autonomy, the leaders stating that now no one could say they were relying on action by the United States, and had only continued the struggle on that score. Their supplies also were running short in the west, and few, even of the officers, owned a complete suit of clothes.

The Cuban Government is established in Camaquey or Puerto Principe, one of the two great provinces that form eastern Cuba. Though professedly a civil authority, it is elected by the army, delegates being sent from each of the twenty-four commands in the island. These representatives elect by vote a president, vice-president, and executive officers for two years. The elections were held in October last, when the aged President, the Marquis of Santa Lucia, retired, and General Maso, also a septuagenarian, took his place. In the western provinces there is much lex non scripta, chiefly framed by the exigencies of the situation; but east of the Trocha, where there has been no reconcentracion, except near the five large seaports, the printed laws of the Cuban Republic are to be found in every house. The country here is Free Cuba to all intents and purposes, and out of a population of 287,000 persons, few indeed of the pacific "citizens" have seen a Spanish uniform. The members of the Government are all white men of superior education, the majority having been educated in the United States, and speaking English perfectly in consequence. It is absurd for Spain to urge her contention that the rebellion is supported mainly by negroes and half-castes. One-third of the population of Cuba is composed of blacks, half-castes, and Chinese, and the proportion of coloured men with the insurgents is about the same. Since Maceo's death there is not a man of colour holding an important position in the Cuban army, except General Rabi, the old Indian, whose bravery in the field in both wars is unsurpassed. The Vice-President of Cuba, Dr. Capote, was one of Havana's leading lawyers before the war. Dr. Giberga, another lawyer, is brother to the autonomist deputy of that name. Colonel Stirling, Secretary of the Treasury, is a Cuban of Scotch descent, and graduated at the New York Military Academy. General Lacret, who takes command of the Cuban contingent preparing to assist in the invasion, was educated in Paris. Dr. Silva is a graduate of Philadelphia College, and Judge Fredey, Chief of the Judiciary, was Judge of the Audiencia or Supreme Court in Havana before the war. I could go on with a long list of leaders who have held excellent positions, but have relinquished all for Cuba libre, endured steadfastly the three years of hardship and refused to surrender.

Until I met the insurgents I shared the popular fallacy that desperadoes and adventurers were making the revolution; but, whatever may have been the character of some of the earlier insurgents, for

two years the struggle has been universal-Cuban versus Spaniard— and even those colonials whom business interests have kept outwardly loyal to Spain are secretly favouring the revolution, and subscribing money to the cause. In the districts of Free Cuba every "citizen" works for the general good, and a system that would obviously fail under ordinary conditions is a great success when prompted by the effusive patriotism existing among the Cubans. All live without rent or direct taxation, but all below the age of forty must work for the Republic, some as soldiers, but the majority on their farms to raise food for the army and for general consumption, or in the Government factories which turn out arms, passable ammunition, boots, saddles, household utensils, and necessary articles of furniture. Each province has a civil governor, who appoints prefects to each district, and generally attends to the wants of the civil population. The prefects act as postmasters, and also collect the necessary supplies from the farmers, distributing necessary commodities in return. In Puerto Principe vast herds of cattle roam at large through the savannahs, and here the prefect attends also to the slaughter of cattle and distribution of meat in his district. Five newspapers are printed, and, indeed, the only want is clothes, which are very scarce, being imported in small quantities by the tiny blockade runner which has passed out weekly with the mail to Nassau and back for three years without capture. All disputes are settled by the civil governor, but the contestants can then appeal to the judge, and finally to the Government. Criminal cases, of which there are now few, are punished by sentence to various periods of labour in the salt mines of Cambote. Marriages were once solemnised by a priest who is attached to the Government. As the Pope refused to recognise them, they are now performed by the civil governor, the banns having to be posted in the prefecture for three weeks previously. Free postal service is also carried on by postillions, who ride each day from one prefecture to another, from whence the letters are distributed. Bellamy, indeed, might find a realisation of some at least of his ideals among these patriots, who unselfishly work, using as their motto "Todo por Cuba" (All for Cuba).

He

The Cuban army in the east-and it is the only insurgent force deserving that name-is commanded by General Calixto Garcia, He has 10,000 well-armed men, including all branches of the service. has seventeen guns in his artillery-two dynamite cannon, the others Hotchkiss and old-fashioned nine-pounders. With these he has captured the strongly fortified cities of Guimaro, Baire, Victoria de las Tunas and Guisa, and is practically master of the interior. Last January General Pando had mobilised 35,000 men to commence operations against Garcia, who hitherto had always had to force a fight. I was astonished to find the insurgent leader at such a time encamped

with only an escort of 200 men close to the enemy's lines, while t Cuban forces remained in their various districts. He was waiting the Imperial troops to finish their store of provisions, and he h neither men nor ammunition to waste in fighting a pitched batt At San Francisco he faced Generals Luque and Val de Ray and th united columns, 13,000 men in all. Even knowing Cuban tactics I do, I admit I was alarmed for the result of such a combat. Behi a trinchera, or breast work, half the tiny force was placed, with wo in rear to retreat to. The Imperial force kept up a continuous fire this position, the bullets having no effect, while in the course three-quarters of an hour's bombardment by a mule battery not of did the Spanish gunners hit their mark. The generals apparen feared a trap, for they made no attempt to rush the position, officers preferring to stand in rear rather than to lead their m The Cuban flag waved defiantly, but even the cavalry did not char but rode round, hoping to make a surprise rush from behind w infantry were formed to attack both flanks. The operation was slowly carried out that the remainder of the Cubans countermarch and blazed away into the rear of the infantry, while the ot relinquished their position and dashed to the woods with a deri cry of Viva Cuba libre. They then poured out a hidden fire f various points in the wood into the reforming ranks of the ba and enraged soldiery. The Cuban loss was one man, while Spanish lost heavily, heliographing to Gibara for litters for wounded, among whom was General Luque's son, fatally shot in side. For several days the Spaniards marched slowly across country toward Holguin; and Garcia, having called up two regim of negro infantry, harassed them night and day until they rea their destination. Such dodging tactics are questionable per but they are the only ones that succeed against so superior a f In the six weeks of operations that followed, General Pando ac plished nothing with all his mobilisation of forces, and judging the fact that Garcia neither called up his artillery, nor moved the flat country surrounding Holguin and Jiguani, it is easy t the impossibility of Spain pacifying Cuba by force. Away i hilly districts of Santiago, where there are impregnable position large stores of vegetables, lay the bulk of the Cuban army, an divisions south of the river Canto were not even requisitioned. I to perceive during the whole of these operations-the last Spai probably carry out against the Cubans-that they were pressed i degree or could not have quietly moved round the soldiers for m longer in the same manner. Their loss was thirty-nine throughout the daily fights, and had they been forced back the the hills to retreat to, from whence Spain could never expel with her methods, if she requisitioned every man she had f

purpose. The military operations under General Blanco were no more effective than those of Weyler.

The explosion of the Maine in Havana caused intense excitement in the United States, and aroused the profoundest feelings of indignation against Spain in many quarters. In the absence of sufficient proof of official complicity, however, it could hardly be looked upon as a casus belli. The very fact that the Spanish cruiser Alphonso XIII. was anchored in the vicinity is strongly in favour of Spain. Those, however, who have seen the wreck cannot fail to be convinced that a great exterior force alone rent the battleship in such fashion. The most feasible theory is that the vessel was placed over a mine, to be used in case of necessity, and that either accident or the design of some fanatical Spanish officer set it off. But the present attitude of the United States is neither actuated by the loss of the Maine nor by sympathy with the revolutionists. Their intervention is a response to the despairing cry of the perishing innocents, the call for vengeance for the women and children who were done to death in thousands within seventy-two miles of the American shore. The war has been called a war of the newspapers, and truly so. There was in Washington a strong opposition to immediate intervention in Cuba; but by the marvellous enterprise of the proprietor of the New York Journal, who chartered a steam yacht and induced a commission formed from the opposition ranks of both Houses to make a tour of the island at his expense and see the actual state of affairs, the procrastinators were converted in a body. Though some still wished to avert war at almost any price, the cry of all parties and factions were unanimous-"This bloody work must cease!" The visiting commission were sickened and horrified at the sights they saw; hitherto they had believed the stories exaggerated, and trusted that there would be an improvement under the new régime, but even by a superficial inspection of the large cities the lurid truth was laid bare. The death from shock of the wife of Senator Thurston, who was stricken down upon viewing the reconcentrados at Sagua, and her dying message to American mothers concerning the horrors that had been too much for her naturally weak heart, stirred Americans as they were never stirred before. From every city, from every State arose the cry—. "Intervention immediately and at all costs." The outcome is already known.

In January last a resolution was passed by the insurgent government stating that, to save further loss of life, Spanish and Cuban, they were willing to pay to Spain an indemnity for immediate and absolute independence. Autonomy they rejected absolutely, and they were prepared to fight to the death should Spain reject their offer. Though the amount was not stated officially, the Cubans would have paid Spain from $150,000,000 to $200,000,000, according to the