SOME CUBAN HEROES.
Although the natural resources of Cuba are remarkable, as will be
demonstrated later, and more than sufficient for all her people, a large
number of Cubans have, either of their own free will or by force become
exiles.
Besides over forty thousand in the United States, there are a large
number in the islands under British control, as well as throughout the
West Indies and in the South American republics.
It is perfectly natural that these exiles should feel the deepest
interest in their native land, and although Spain has complained
frequently of being menaced from beyond her borders, what else could she
expect after the way in which she treated these exiled sons of hers?
Besides she has had no just cause for grievance, as the right for
foreign countries to furnish asylums to political offenders has been
recognized from time immemorial, and, unless some overt act be
committed, there can be no responsibility on the part of such foreign
countries.
Enough perhaps has been said to show that the Cubans had every reason to
once again rise in revolt, but in order that there may be no doubt as to
the justice of their cause, let us recapitulate:
Spain has invariably drawn from the island all that could be squeezed
out of it.
In spite of her protests she has never done anything for Cuba, all her
aim being to replenish her own exhausted treasury and to enrich the
functionaries of the Spanish government.
While Cuba is a producing country, she has been refused the right to
dispose of her produce to other countries except at ruinous rates, in
spite of the fact that Spain herself could not begin to consume all that
Cuba had to offer. The market of the island, by the way, from the very
nature of things, is the United States, and not Spain.
The rules which limit importation have been most rigid. For instance,
American flour cannot enter Cuba free of duty, while it enters as a free
product into Spain.
Spain has governed Cuba with a most arbitrary hand. The island has had
nothing whatever to say as to the management of its own affairs.
The Cubans have purposely been kept in a state of ignorance, the system
of education amounting practically to nothing.
The Spaniards have never kept one promise made, but after each promise
have increased their oppression and tyranny.
In 1894 Senor Sagasta laid before the Cortes a project for reform in
Cuba; but the sense of this project was confused in the extreme; there
was little hope that a reform planned with such little method could meet
with any degree of successful realization. In fact there was little or
no possibility that the abuses under which the island groaned would be
removed.
At last patience ceased to be a virtue. The present rising in Cuba was
begun toward the close of 1894. The leader was Jose Marti, a poet and
orator, who was then in New York. He at the outset, was the very soul of
the revolutionary movement, and he held in his hands the threads of the
conspiracy.
He was a man of charming and captivating personality, strong in his own
convictions and devoted body, heart and soul to the interests of his
country.
He was the son of a Spanish colonel and when quite young was condemned,
for what reason has never been known, to ten years imprisonment in
Havana. Afterwards, he was sentenced to the galleys for life.
When the amnesty was declared, after the Ten Years War, he was given
back his freedom, but his resentment still continued and he vowed his
life to obtaining the liberty of Cuba.
He went first to Central America, and afterwards took up his residence
in the United States.
Everywhere he preached what he considered a holy war. Here and there he
gathered together contributions, which he sent to Cuba for the secret
purchase of arms and ammunition. He met with many rebuffs and
disappointments, but not for one moment did he doubt the justice of his
cause or its ultimate success. He was not a visionary man, but there
were those even among the ones he had won over by his impassioned words
who looked upon him as the victim of hallucinations. That this was not
true, the events of the past few years have fully proven.
Marti organized his first expedition in New York, and set sail for Cuba
with three vessels, the Lagonda, the Amadis and the Baracoa, containing
men and war materials. This expedition was stopped, however, by the
United States authorities.
Later, Marti joined Gomez, Cromlet, Cebreco and the Maceo brothers, all
of whom had fought in the Ten Years War, at Santo Domingo, which was
Gomez' home.
Some description of these men, all of whom have done magnificent work
for the freedom of their country, may not be out of place.
Maximo Gomez is about seventy-five years of age, and he may perhaps be
termed the "Washington" of the fight for liberty. It will be remembered
that he was a leader in the Ten Years War. He is a man of excellent
judgment, and, in spite of his years, of marvelous mental and physical
activity. No better man could the insurgents have selected as their
general-in-chief.
Flor Cromlet was a guerilla of unquestioned valor, who lost his life
early in the campaign, but his name will live in the annals of free and
independent Cuba. His mother was a mulatto, but his father was a
Spaniard.
The Maceo brothers have been particularly distinguished. They were born
of colored parents, and were of the type of the mulatto. Both were men
of indomitable courage. Antonio Maceo was born at Santiago de Cuba in
1848. At the beginning of the Ten Years War, he was a mule driver, and
could neither read nor write. He was one of the first to enlist in the
Cuban army, and soon showed his courage and intelligence. He was
rapidly promoted to superior rank and became a terror to the Spanish
army. Their one idea seemed to be to capture him, but apparently he
possessed a charmed life. During his leisure moments, which it can be
imagined were but few, he managed to learn to read and write. He was one
of the last combatants to lay down his arms in the former war, and then
only because he saw that further struggle would only end in loss of life
without the winning of liberty.
He was exiled and then travelled through America, studying constantly
and ever endeavoring to improve himself. Here was a poor, obscure,
descendant of slaves who by sheer perseverance, of course coupled with
natural ability, afterward held the armies of a great nation at bay.
Antonio Maceo was killed in Havana province in 1896, probably through
the treachery of one of his followers, and his brother died, but not
until both had accomplished wonderful deeds of valor. It is a pity that
they could not have lived to see the results of their unselfish
patriotism.
Another mulatto who has won fame in the cause of "Free Cuba" is Augustin
Cebreco.
The "Marion of Cuba," as he was called, Nestor Aranguren, must not be
forgotten. He was at the head of a little band of men, all members of
the best Havana families and graduates of the university. He was very
much like the "Swamp Fox" of our Revolution in the way he would
undertake some daring raid, and then retreat into the long grass of the
Manigua to rest his tired horses and recruit his men. One of his most
famous exploits was the capture of a train at the very gates of Havana.
Aranguren treated his captives most kindly, with one exception, and in
this he was justified. A man named Barrios had often informed against
the insurgents, and he was condemned to death. Of him, Aranguren said:
"That Cuban must die. I must rid my country of such an unnatural son.
Thank God, there are few such traitors!"
The rest were allowed to go free.
To one of the Spaniards who were on the train, Aranguren said:
"If Spain should grant a generous and liberal autonomy, peace is not
only possible, but probable; but, if she should persevere in her false
colors, she will not regain control of this island, until every true
soldier of Cuba is dead, and that will take a long time."
The ill-fated Aranguren died at the age of twenty-four.
It was not until May, 1895, that Marti and the other leaders thought it
wise to go to Cuba. When they reached there, they found that the
insurgents had already commenced the rebellion and had even gained some
ground.
At first the Spanish authorities looked upon the insurrection as a
trivial matter, nothing more serious than a negro riot.
They believed that it would be speedily suppressed as Spain had then in
the island an army of nineteen thousand men, besides the fifty thousand
volunteers, who could be called on in case of need. But, to make all
sure, seven thousand more soldiers were sent over from Spain.
In addition to this, many men, who afterward were among the leaders of
the insurgent party expressed their unqualified disapproval of the
movement. And in this, they were undoubtedly sincere, as they had not
the slightest idea that it could succeed.
The general lack of sympathy and the universal criticism that met the
little band of revolutionists unquestionably contributed much toward the
relaxation of the vigilance of the government.
But the government was soon to be undeceived. The insurrection became a
very serious matter indeed. The insurgents pursued very much the same
tactics that they had followed in the Ten Years War, that is, they would
seldom risk an open battle, and the Spaniards could gain but little
ground against the guerilla methods of their opponents.
The Cubans were very badly equipped; in fact they had scarcely any war
material whatever. They began by appropriating indiscriminately any fire
arms wherever they could find them, from the repeating rifle to the shot
gun with the ramrod. Many of them were armed only with revolvers, and
the majority of them had simply the "machete," a knife about nineteen
inches in length.
Recruits constantly came to their ranks, however, and it was not long
before they numbered over six thousand.
A political crisis now took place in Spain, and the conservative party
came into power. Premier Canovas then appointed as governor-general of
Cuba, Martinez Campos, who had been so successful, by diplomacy rather
than by anything else, in ending the Ten Years War.
He landed at Guantanamo, and before visiting Havana, he issued the most
elaborate instructions to every department of the military service,
which now had been largely reinforced.
In the early part of the war, a great misfortune befell the Cubans, and
that was in the loss of their beloved leader, Jose Marti.
On the 18th of May, a part of the insurgent army camped upon the plains
of Dos Rios, where they learned that the enemy was in the neighborhood,
in safety, protected by a fort.
The insurgents numbered about seven hundred cavalrymen, under the
command of Marti and Gomez.
The next morning they came upon the Spanish outpost. Gomez, who has
always shown himself to be a prudent general, thought it would be wiser
not to risk a battle, but to continue their route, as the object of the
expedition was not skirmishing, but to attempt to penetrate into the
Province of Puerto Principe.
But Jose Marti, in his fiery enthusiasm longed to fall upon the enemy;
he declared that not to do so would be dishonor. Gomez yielded.
Marti was mounted upon a very spirited horse. He was told that it was
unmanageable, but he would not listen to reason. Crying, "Come on, my
children!" and "Viva Cuba Libre," he dashed upon the Spanish, followed
by his men.
Before this onslaught, the Spaniards retreated, but in good order. Gomez
cried to his troops to rally, but Marti, dragged on by his horse which
he was unable to control, disappeared among the ranks of the enemy. He
received a bullet above the left eye, another in the throat, and several
bayonet thrusts in the body.
Led by Gomez, who was heart broken at the fate of his old companion and
friend, the insurgents charged upon the Spaniards, but it was of no
avail. The latter retained possession of the corpse of the gallant
soldier, whose only fault was a too reckless bravery.
And now it is a pleasure to be able to recount one noble act on the part
of the Spaniards, perhaps the only one in the whole course of the war.
General Campos, who was a just and honorable man, ordered the body of
the illustrious patriot to receive decent burial, and one of the Spanish
officers even pronounced a sort of eulogy over the remains.
There was a report that Gomez had also been killed, but this was a
mistake. About a mouth afterward he crossed the trocha and entered the
province of Puerto Principe, more commonly known as the Camaguey.
The trocha, by the way, was an invention of Campos in the preceding war,
and was found to be of great value. It was practically a line of forts
extending across the island between the provinces of Puerto Principe and
Santa Clara, and it was intended that the insurgents should not be
allowed to cross this line. Other trochas were afterwards erected, but
they have not proved of any extraordinary advantage in the present
insurrection.
An assembly, composed of representatives of all the bands that were
under arms, met and elected the officers of the revolutionary
government.
Salvador Cisneros, otherwise known as the Marquis of Santa Lucia, was
elected president, the same office he had filled during the Ten Years
War.
The other officers were:
Vice-President, Bartolomeo Maso.
Secretary of State, Rafael Portuondo y Tamayo.
Secretary of War, Carlos Roloff.
Secretary of the Treasury, Severo Pina.
General-in-Chief, Maximo Gomez.
Lieutenant-General, Antonio Maceo.
Afterwards, at another election, as officers, according to the Cuban
constitution, only serve two years, there were replaced by the
following:
President, Bartolomeo Maso. Vice-President, Mendez Capote.
Secretary of State, Andres Moreno de la Torres.
Secretary of War, Jose B. Alemon.
Secretary of the Treasury, Ernesto Fons Sterling.
Maximo Gomez still remained general-in-chief.
Gomez and Campos were now pitted once more against each other, as they
had been in the previous war.
Both men issued orders to their respective commands.
Gomez ordered the Cubans to attack the small Spanish outposts, capture
their arms if possible setting at liberty every man who should deliver
them up; to cut all railway and telegraph lines; to keep on the
defensive and retreat in groups, unless the Cubans were in a position to
fight the enemy at great advantage; to destroy Spanish forts and other
buildings where any resistance was made by the enemy; to destroy all
sugar crops and mills, the owners of which refused to contribute to the
Cuban war fund; and, finally to forbid the farmers to send any food to
the cities unless upon the payment of certain taxes.
On his part, Campos issued the following commands:
Several regiments to protect the sugar estates; other detachments to be
placed along the railroads, and on every train in motion; to attack
always, unless the enemy's numbers were three to one; all rebels, except
officers, who surrendered, to be allowed to go free and unmolested;
convoys of provisions to be sent to such towns as needed them.
Everything was now in readiness for a fierce campaign, and one that
threatened to be protracted. It was not long before operations commenced
in earnest.