A LESSON IN PATRIOTISM
The boys huddled together at an obscure part of the deck and Harry
described to them what he had seen below decks.
"There are two eight pounders and two rapid fire guns with their noses
poked against port holes that can be opened at a moment's notice. And
besides these, there is an arsenal of small arms like rifles, pistols,
swords, and cutlasses. Everything seems to be in apple pie order and all
ready for use. If we were living in the days of the old pirate ships, I
should say that we were likely to fly the black flag at any moment."
"What do you make of it, Hal?" asked Bert.
"I tell you I cannot make anything of it. It is beyond me. The only
thing we can do is to keep our weather eyes open and watch for
developments. It is certainly a ship of mystery and the captain does not
apparently propose to enlighten us as to her character. But he seems to
be an honest man, and I think we are perfectly safe in leaving all to
him, and I believe that sometime we shall know what we are up against.
In the meantime, however, as I warned him, I shall make every effort to
get off the ship, or to notify some passing craft that we are on board
safe and sound, so that word may be carried to those on shore. They must
believe that we are drowned by this time, particularly if they have
picked up the wreck of the yacht."
"Let's go aft and take a look over the cabin while the captain is
asleep. All's fair in love and war, you know, and we are certainly
entitled to find out all we can about our surroundings, particularly in
view of Hal's investigations below."
The boys strolled leisurely aft, taking care not to arouse the
suspicions of any one about the decks. They entered the cabin. All was
still. The sun shone brightly through the port holes and lay in a wide
beam on the big map that the captain had been studying when the boys
turned out of bed.
"Let's have a look at this," said Bert, quickly approaching the table as
he spoke. "It may tell us something of our destination."
The boys gathered eagerly around.
The map was a hydrographic chart of the Caribbean Sea. Cuba and Porto
Rico appeared on a large scale. The boys studied it in silence and
finally Mason shook his head in despair.
"That does not tell much," he said. "We may be going to Cuba or Porto
Rico, but if we are, why all this secrecy and those firearms?"
"They may fit in together more closely than you think," said Harry, who
had been studying the map thoughtfully.
"What do you mean?" asked Bert.
"I do not mean anything yet. Let us wait. Speculation and guessing will
not solve this mystery."
"Look here," said the Midget, who had been browsing around the cabin. He
had lifted one of the cushions from a settee and disclosed beneath a
locker which contained a number of flags of different colors and shapes.
"What are those?" asked the boys in chorus.
"They are signal flags. Now let's find the code and then we can signal
some passing ship."
"Here's the code," announced Harry, who, as soon as Mason had spoken had
gone to a little book shelf on the wall of the cabin. "But how are we to
get the flags up without attracting attention?"
"Easy. We will make up our signal and then take the flags necessary to
show it and conceal them where we can get them at any moment. Then when
we sight a vessel we can bend them onto the halliards and have them
aloft before anyone can interfere. It would be a minute or two before
they could haul them down, even if they discovered them at once, and in
that time it is likely that the other ship would have read them. Anyway,
it is worth trying."
"I think you are right," said Harry. "Nothing venture, nothing have.
Let's make the signal."
He took the code book from the shelf and opened it on the table.
"In the first place, it is necessary to know what you want to say before
you pick out your flags. Now what shall the message be?"
"Say we have been kidnapped by a pirate ship and want assistance,"
suggested the Midget, wisely.
"Nonsense," replied Bert, "we don't want to say anything about the ship.
We have nothing against her, nor her captain. Didn't they save our
lives? All that we want is to be taken off and if that is not possible
to have word sent home that we are all right, and then we can see the
thing out comfortably. In fact, I for one, would much prefer staying
aboard if it were possible to get word ashore. We do not know what
interesting adventures may be in store for us aboard this strange
craft."
"Well, anyway, let's frame a message."
"It's got to be short, for we cannot use any more flags than is
absolutely necessary, as we may be discovered before we can get them up.
How's this: 'Report Hamilton, Mason, and Wilson picked up from wrecked
yacht off Cottage City by steamer _Mariella_. All well.'"
"Fine," said Mason. "Hal, your massive intellect astonishes me more and
more each day."
After some discussion, the boys selected the proper flags and laid them
to one side. The problem of getting them aloft then presented itself.
"There must be halliards already bent for the use of signals," said
Harry. "I will go out on deck and have a quiet look for them."
He returned shortly from his inspection.
"Everything is ready for instant use," he reported, "but we must have
the flags bent onto a separate piece of rope so that all we shall have
to do is to fasten the rope to the halliards and send the flags aloft.
And then we must also stow the flags somewhere where we can get at them
easily as soon as we see another vessel."
"Leave that to me, captain," said Mason, saluting with a grin. "Right
under my bunk is a place. All you fellows watch where I put them, so
that if I am not with you when the ship comes along you can do the
trick. No telling when a man of my fiery temper may be put in irons on a
ship like this."
The boys carefully stowed away the flags after they had bent them in
their proper order to a spare piece of rope which Mason picked up on
deck. They now felt that they had done as much as lay within their power
to relieve the anxiety of the folks at home, and all that remained was
to keep a sharp lookout for a passing ship. They arranged watches so
that one of them should be on deck during all of the daylight hours, and
all hands were to keep their eyes open through the port holes and from
such other points of vantage as they could take at all times when it was
light enough to see a passing ship.
This satisfactorily off their minds, the boys took more interest in a
survey of their prison ship, for so they had begun to look upon her,
although each one of them had made up his mind that he would like to see
the adventure out.
That night before dinner they met the captain again in the cabin. The
maps were still lying on the table.
"Do you see this big island here, boys?" he asked. "It looks big on the
map, but it is a very small spot on the face of the earth, and yet its
people have suffered more misery, injustice, and oppression than the
world will ever know."
"Discontented people always quarrelling with their government are
usually unhappy. They bring most of their misery on themselves."
Harry spoke carelessly. He was not much interested in the wrongs of
Cuba. He was surprised to see the captain's eyes flash again with that
fierce fire that had marked them when he first defied him.
"Discontented, is it," almost shouted the captain. "And do you know why,
boy?"
"I am sure I do not, Captain Dynamite, except that it is apparently born
in them."
"Yes, that's the way most of the world, ignorant of poor Cuba's trials,
looks at the matter. Statesmen have investigated and reported back to
the halls of Congress and Cuba and her wrongs have been laid away in the
dusty archives."
"Look," he said, pointing again at the map, and involuntarily the boys
gathered closer around him and peered at the parchment. "That land, as
God made it, was the fairest that the eye ever looked upon."
Captain Dynamite paused for a moment and seemed to grow more calm. He
seated himself with his elbows on the table behind him and deftly rolled
a cigarette with one hand. The boys, interested now because of his
intense feeling, waited for him to continue.
"Youngsters," he said finally, "let me give you a little piece of
history of these 'discontented' folks and perhaps you will regard their
condition with different eyes and hearts. Your text-books at school
have undoubtedly told you that Spanish rule in Cuba began in 1511, when
Diego Valesquez subjugated the peaceful natives, and the Spanish methods
of conquest made a record that lives to this day.
"See this island here," said the captain, pointing to Hayti. "At that
time almost uninhabited, its wild shores and hidden inlets served as
places of concealment for buccaneers. These pirates of the Spanish Main
not alone indulged in the adventurous pastime of smuggling, but they
attacked and plundered Spanish trading ships and even made forceful
expeditions upon land, ravaging cities and towns. They were encouraged
in their depredations by other nations unfriendly to Spain. Henry
Morgan, one of these buccaneers, who was commissioned as a privateer,
was knighted by England in 1671 because of his prowess as a legalized
pirate.
"In 1762, Havana was besieged by the English and the Seven Years War
began. The British were successful and under English rule the ports of
Cuba were opened to free trade and an era of progress was inaugurated.
But it was short lived, and in 1763 Cuba fell again into the hands of
Spain, England trading the island for Florida. The two first governors
under the new Spanish regime were liberal, just, and progressive. They
were Luis de Las Casas, appointed in 1790, and the Count of Santa Clara,
who succeeded him in 1796.
"It was about 1810 that the general discontent of the colonist with the
tyrannical home government resulted in the formation of political
societies whose purpose was to plan insurrections in the hope of
wresting the island from Spanish rule, as did Buenos Ayres, Venezuela,
and Peru. There was no open revolt for ten years, when the revolutionary
leaders proclaimed a governing law, and after two years of turmoil the
king yielded to their demands. But as Spain's promises were made only to
be broken, other insurrections soon sprang up among the colonists. One
of the most important revolutionary movements of those days was led by
Narciso Lopez, a Venezuelan. This was in 1848. He was unsuccessful, but
escaped with many of his followers to New York, where he found many
sympathizers and practical aid. The United States government frustrated
his attempt in 1849 to return to Cuba with a small invading force. A
year later he reached the island with six hundred men, but was forced to
take to his ship again, and with a Spanish gunboat close astern, made
Key West and disbanded the expedition.
"By this time the Lopez revolution had gained much fame and many
sympathizers in the United States who, while they were not inspired with
the patriotic sentiment that stirred him, were strong admirers of his
courage and determination. With a small band of four hundred and fifty
men, and with Colonel Crittenden, of Kentucky, a West Pointer who won
his title in the Mexican War, as second in command, Lopez started for
Cuba from New Orleans the next year. On landing, Crittenden and one
hundred and fifty men remained near the shore to guard the supplies,
while Lopez, with the rest of the little invading army, marched inland.
Both parties were discovered by the Spaniards, surrounded, and after a
desperate resistance, completely wiped out."
"Do you mean that Lopez and Crittenden were both killed?" asked Bert,
who had listened to the captain's recital with intense interest.
"Lopez and Crittenden and every man jack of the expedition," replied the
captain, solemnly.
"Who was the next to try it?" asked Harry, whose eyes shone with
excitement.
"Up to this time the grievances that inspired the Cuban colonists to
revolt were mostly of a political character, based upon that bone of
contention that inspired your own revolution against the
British--taxation without representation. The little island to-day pays
to Spain every year over $20,000,000 in revenue. In 1868, a lawyer
named Cespedes declared independence of Spanish rule on a little
plantation at Yara. He had back of him only one hundred and twenty-eight
men, but in a few weeks after his declaration ten thousand men gathered
under his leadership. A republican form of government was established,
with Cespedes at its head. General Quesada commanded the poorly equipped
but determined and patriotic army. Until 1878 the insurgents held the
field with about fifty thousand men. They constantly met and vanquished
the Spanish forces under the Count of Valmaseda, but the resources of
the Spaniards were greater, and finally the Cubans were disintegrated,
but still maintained a guerilla warfare, constantly harassing and
defeating the Spanish forces sent against them. But neither side made
any progress toward the end and at the end of the year both were ready
for a compromise, which resulted in the treaty of El Zanjon. At this
time the Spaniards were commanded by General Campos, and the insurgents
by Gen. Maximo Gomez--that grand old warrior who still holds the field
for Cuba against the forces of Spain--I kiss his hand."
Captain Dynamite, as he mentioned the name of Gomez, rose to his feet,
bowed solemnly and reverentially, and lifted to his lips an imaginary
hand.
"Fighting, still fighting for Cuba," he whispered as he resumed his
seat. After a moment's pause he shook himself as if awakening from a
dream and continued his narrative.
"That treaty promised Cuba representation in the Spanish Cortes, or
congress, but while it was kept in the letter it was broken in spirit.
The government obtained control of the polls and the deputies, or
representatives elected were always government tools or sympathizers. So
poor Cuba, after her long struggle, was no better off than before, and
in 1894 Jose Marti, at the head of a new insurrection, set sail from New
York with three ships, men, and munitions of war. But the United States
authorities stopped them. Marti then joined Gomez in Cuba and was killed
in a skirmish. He was succeeded in command by General Gomez, who still
fights on with a hungry, ill-clad handful of men against the best of
Spain's army. One hundred and forty-five thousand men have been sent
against him but he still fights; he still lives to fight, although he is
over seventy-five years old.
"I have told you of the dogged determination, the splendid patriotism of
the men who are fighting to lift the yoke of Spain from poor Cuba.
Surely there must be something more than mere political wrongs to
inspire such a spirit. You have heard of Weyler--'Butcher Weyler' they
call him, and he is proud of the title. Frightened by the courage and
resistance of the insurgent army, Spain looked about for a man capable
of crushing the indomitable spirit of the rebels. In Weyler she thought
she had found the man. He arrived in Havana in 1896. Among his first
acts looking to the pacification of Cuba was his order of concentration.
You have heard perhaps of the wretched 'reconcentrados?' They are the
product of Weyler's order. Under this policy nearly a million peaceful
Cubans, farmers and dwellers in the country, have been driven from their
homes into nearby cities and their deserted houses burned to the ground.
These people are mostly women and children and old men--non-combatants.
In this way Weyler sought to stop the aid that was being given to the
insurgents in the field. From the 'pacificos,' as they are known the
rebels could at any time secure food, clothing, and shelter.
"Concentrated in the towns, without food or money to buy it, and many
without clothing, these reconcentrados quickly became the victims of
famine and disease. A part of Weyler's order of concentration provided
for the gifts of ground to cultivate, and the Spaniard's answer to the
charge of inhumanity is a shrug of the shoulders and the reply that the
reconcentrados starve because they are too lazy to work. 'We give them
the land,' he says, 'and they will not till it.' True, they gave them
land, but no seed to sow and no tools to reap and they have no money to
buy them. Everything they owned is in the heap of ashes that marks the
spot where the little thatched cottage once stood. Thousands and
thousands of human beings are herded together like cattle, with no means
to feed themselves, and, unlike cattle, with no one to feed them.
"Why, I have seen--I have been told by those who have seen it--of little
children with the skin drawn like parchment over their bodies. And boys,
when you think that among these poor victim's of Spain's pacification
policy are the wives and children, sisters and sweethearts of the
struggling insurgents in the field, is it any wonder that the spirit of
independence will not down in the Pearl of the Antilles?"
That the captain was a man of feeling and education there could be no
further doubt in the minds of the captive boys. That he should have
taken the trouble to thus enlighten them on the subject of Cuba's wrongs
was a compliment to their understanding which was not lost.