CUBA. 



209 



land, aspire to the hope of seeing Cuba happy and 

 prosperous by virtue of its own power, and demand 

 the inviolability of individuals, their homes, their 

 families, an,d the fruits of their labor, which it will 

 have guaranteed by the liberty of conscience^ of 

 speech, of the press, by peaceful meetings ; in tact, 

 they demand a government of the country for and by 

 the country, free from an army of parasites and sol- 

 diers that only serves to consume it and oppress it. 

 And, as nothing of that kind can be obtained from 

 Spain, they intend to fight it with all available means, 

 and drive and iiproot its dominion on the face of 

 Cuba. ^Respecting above all and before all the dig- 

 nity of man, the association declares that it will not 

 accept slavery as a forced inheritance of the past ; 

 however, instead of abolishing it as an arm by which 

 to sink the island into barbarity, as threatened by the 

 Government of Spain, they view abolition as a means 

 of improving the moral and material condition of the 

 working-man, and thereby to place property and 

 wealth in a more just and safe position. 



Sons of their times, baptized in the vivid stream 

 of civilization, and, therefore, above preoccupation 

 of nationality, the laborers will respect the neutrality 

 of Spaniards, but among Cubans will distinguish 

 only friends and foes, those that are with them or 

 against them. To the former they offer peace, frater- 

 nity, and concord : to the latter, hostility and war 

 war and hostility that will be more implacable to the 

 traitors to Cuba, where they first saw the day, who 

 turn their arms against them, or offer any asylum or 

 refuge to their tyrants. We, the laborers, ignore 

 the value of nationality, but at the present moment 

 consider it of secondary moment. Before nationality 

 stands liberty, the indisputable condition ^ of exist- 

 ence. We must be a people before becoming a na- 

 tion. When the Cubans constitute a free people they 

 will receive the nationality that becomes them. Now 

 they have none. 



In January, 1869, a proclamation was issued 

 by the Spanish Captain-General, to appease the 

 Cubans. He said : 



I will brave every danger, accept every responsi- 

 bility for your welfare. The revolution has swept 



dignity. You will receive all the reforms which you re- 

 quire. Cubans and Spaniards are all brothers. From 

 this day Cuba will be considered as a province of 

 Spain. Freedom of the press, the right of meeting 

 in public, and representation in the national Cortes, 

 the three fundamental principles of true liberty, are 

 granted you. 



Cubans and Spaniards ! Speaking in the name of 

 our mother, Spain, I adjure you to forget the past, 

 hope for the future, and establish union and frater- 

 nity. 



The proclamation remained without any ef- 

 fect upon the leaders, of whom at this time the 

 Marquis of Santa Lucia and General Castillo 

 were in the neighborhood of Puerto Principe, 

 while other forces were besieging Gibara, and 

 2,000 men were holding Colonel Lono in check 

 at Tunas, and General Cespedes, the Provisional 

 President, was near St. Jago de Cuba. 



The first reinforcement, in 1869, from Spain, 

 consisted of about 1,500 troops. The Spanish 

 General Yalmaseda succeeded in joining Colo- 

 nel Lono at Tunas, and marched* on Bayamo. 

 Meanwhile the Cuban forces, 6,000 strong, 

 under General Quesada, advanced on Puerto 

 Principe, which was defended by Colonel Mena 

 with a garrison of 3,000 men. 



Another reinforcement of 1,000 men arrived 

 VOL. ix. 14. A 



on February 15th. A decree was issued abolish- 

 ing the freedom of the press and establishing 

 trials by military commissions. The citizens 

 of Havana were called upon to raise twenty- 

 five millions for the Government. The volun- 

 teers continued to create disturbances. This 

 body, originally organized by Lersundi, while 

 energetic in support of the revolution which 

 relieved Spain from Isabella, showed them- 

 selves as ready to support the Spanish rule in 

 Cuba. Their seven battalions numbered at this 

 time about 5,000 men. Their demeanor was 

 insolent and overbearing. 



In February, 5,000 insurgents, divided into 

 three bodies, between Villa Clara and Cienfue- 

 gos, were destroying the railway and cutting the 

 telegraph wires. An engagement took place at 

 San Cristoval, twenty-two leagues west from 

 Havana, with a body of insurgents under Prieto, 

 in which the troops were defeated and obliged to 

 retreat. Another action took place at Quanajay, 

 eleven leagues from Havana, on the north coast, 

 in which twenty Spaniards were wounded. 

 The arrival of reinforcements from Count Val- 

 maseda prevented the Cubans from taking San- 

 tiago. The insurgents still held Tunas. Havana 

 was practically in a state of siege, and General 

 Dulce was urged to declare it officially, but was 

 not inclined to do so, and even released Cubans 

 producing American naturalization papers. 

 The Cubans destroyed the telegraph and stop- 

 ped the mails at Trinidad. Banditti pillaged 

 the plantations in the vicinity of Nuevitas. A 

 body of troops, sent on February 7th to San 

 Miguel, burned the town, hut the insurgents 

 held their ground in the vicinity. They also 

 continued to surround Puerto Principe, the in- 

 habitants of which city were suffering for want 

 of provisions. A force of Spanish troops 

 under Quiros advanced to Jiguani, near Bay- 

 amo, from Santiago de Cuba, fighting severely 

 all along the route with the insurgents under 

 General Cespedes, in order to join Count Val- 

 maseda, who was at Jiguani with the main body 

 of his forces. The insurgent chiefs were con- 

 stantly moving from one point to another, thus 

 baffling pursuit and wearying their enemies by 

 long and profitless marches. To deprive the 

 Spaniards of the power of moving, they also 

 continued burning estates and railroad bridges,, 

 and destroying roads. On the 14th of Febru- 

 ary, Colonel Lono's column of Spanish troops 

 arrived at Manzanilla from Bayamo, with about 

 1,000 refugees. This column was harassed hy 

 the insurgents all the way. The latter cap- 

 tured the port of La Guanaja, a small town 

 a few leagues west of Nuevitas, and fortified it 

 with hrass guns, manned by Americans. In 

 the middle of February 1,000 chasseurs arrived 

 from Spain, and went, under General Puello, 

 to Cienfuegos. The amnesty proclamation was 

 officially declared to have expired,, hut the 

 Captain-General proclaimed the benefit of par- 

 don to all insurgents that would surrender 

 themselves, with or without arms, excluding 

 the chiefs of the insurrection,, assassins, incen- 



