THE PALACE. 
31 
sibility of disturbance or an individual act of insult or hostility to the departing 
Spanish Commander. 
At noon the Spanish flag was saluted from Cabana, the 8th Infantry band in the Plaza 
de Armas in front of the Palace playing the Spanish National Air. 
The American ensign was then hoisted on the Palace flag staff, as well as at 
Morro and Cabana and the public buildings generally, the national salute was fired 
and the National Air played,troops saluting and the people uncovering. 
Inside the Palace, the occasion was one of a quiet dignity, which was in fact 
profoundly pathetic, as SP a 'u, in the person of her representative, surrendered for¬ 
ever the sovereignty that had . been hers through four centuries, and abandoned all 
future title to a foothold on the Western Continent. 
Three years and five month's later a yet more memorable event took 
place here, when the Palace of Spain’s Captains-General witnessed the 
establishment of a republican form of government. On the 20th of May, 
1902-—the day whose anniversary Cuba observes as her national holiday—- 
the allotted task of the United States having been accomplished in the 
Island, the American flag was lowered from the staff on the Palace and 
the flag of Cuba took its place. The Republic was established at 12 o’clock 
noon of that day. The transfer of government, formally declared in a 
document written by President Roosevelt and received.by President Palma, 
was made in the main room of the Palace. During the ceremony the 
United States troops in the Plaza presented arms as the American flag was 
lowered; and when the flag of the Republic was raised, the guns of the 
TT pi-nRey Brooklyn joined with those of the Cabana in its salute. 
RAISING the flag of the republic, may 20, 1902. 
