"if our suspicion as to the guilt of the Spaniards should prove correct,
there will be war between America and Spain; America will without doubt
be the conqueror, and Spain will be forced to relinquish her hold on
Cuba, without the need for further effort on the part of the
revolutionaries. So far, therefore, as the purchase of additional
munitions of war is concerned, I believe, Don Hermoso, that you may save
your money."
"Indeed!" said Don Hermoso. "Then in that case, gentlemen, we may as
well defer our departure until we see what is about to happen."
And they did.
The rest of the story is a matter of well-known history. A few days
later a court of enquiry into the _Maine_ disaster was opened on board
the U.S. steamer _Mangrove_, then lying in Havana harbour, and sat
continuously until March 21st; while the wreck of the warship was most
carefully examined by divers, who laid the result of their observations
before the court. The finding of the court was: "That the loss of the
_Maine_ was not in any respect due to fault or negligence on the part of
any of the officers, or members of her crew; that the ship was destroyed
by the explosion of a submarine mine, which caused the partial explosion
of two or more of her forward magazines; and that no evidence has been
obtainable fixing the responsibility for the destruction of the _Maine_
upon any person or persons."
But, the last clause of the finding notwithstanding, there was probably
not one United States citizen per hundred who did not feel morally
convinced that the Spaniards were the guilty parties; and, that being
the case, war was from that moment inevitable. On April 8, 1898,
General Lee, the United States Consul-General, received orders to leave
Cuba and hand over the charge of the United States interests to the
British Consul; and on the following day he, with such American citizens
as still remained in Havana, left for Florida in a gunboat. On April
18th a conference between the Committees of the two American Houses
resulted in the adoption of a certain resolution, which was signed by
President McKinley on the 20th of the same month: a copy was served upon
Senor Polo y Bernabe, the Spanish Minister at Washington, who
immediately asked for his passports, and left that city. On April 21st
the President of the United States proclaimed the blockade of the Cuban
coast from Cienfuegos westward to Cape San Antonio, and thence north and
east past Havana to Cardenas; and as the bulk of the American fleet had
been quietly concentrating at Key West from the date of the destruction
of the _Maine_, the blockade was put into effect within eight hours of
its declaration. On April 24th the Spanish Government formally
recognised the existence of war between itself and the United States;
and on the following day the United States Congress passed the following
Bill without a division:--
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States in congress assembled:--
"_First_: That war be, and the same is hereby declared to exist, and
that war has existed since the 21st day of April, a.d. 1898, including
the said day, between the United States of America and the kingdom of
Spain.
"_Second_: That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is,
directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the
United States, and to call into the actual service of the United States
the militia of the several States, to such extent as may be necessary to
carry this Act into effect."
This is not a story of the Spanish-American war. Let it suffice,
therefore, to say that, after the landing of the Fifth Army Corps on the
island of Cuba on June 24th, and the destruction of the Spanish squadron
under Admiral Cervera on July 3rd, a protocol was signed on August 12th,
and all hostilities were suspended; and finally, on January 1, 1899, the
relinquishment of Spanish sovereignty over Cuba was formally
accomplished, the Spanish flag being lowered and the Stars and Stripes
temporarily hoisted in its place on the various forts and other
Government buildings throughout the island. A singularly pathetic
feature of the Spanish evacuation of Cuba was the solemn removal of the
alleged remains of Christopher Columbus from their resting-place in
Havana Cathedral, and their conveyance to Spain.
The state of the island by the time that the war was ended was of course
dreadful beyond description: the inhabitants were, with a few
exceptions, reduced to a state of absolute destitution; agriculture had
practically ceased; commerce and industry were dead; brigandage was
rampant; and, to use the expressive language of the historian, human
misery had apparently reached its maximum possibility. Under such
circumstances it was not at all difficult for Jack to secure a very
large estate adjoining that of Senor Montijo upon exceptionally
favourable terms; and although, like that of his friend, the estate
consisted but of the soil, now overrun with weeds and the riotous
vegetation of the Tropics, labour was abundant, and Jack and his friend
Don Hermoso, spending their money freely, soon had every trace of the
late troublous times swept away and fresh crops planted. Don Hermoso
did not long survive the triumph of the cause which he had so nobly
espoused: with the coming of peace there came also time for memory and
retrospection, and time for him to miss the dear ones torn from him
during the struggle; and shortly after the completion of his great work
of restoring his estate to its original prosperous and well-managed
condition he passed quietly away--not as the result of any disease in
particular, but apparently because now he no longer had anything to live
for--and was laid to rest beside his wife.
As for Jack, he felt that after what he had seen of, and done in, Cuba,
it was simply impossible for him to turn his back upon the island; he
therefore disposed of his interest in the firm of Singleton, Murdock and
Company, and invested the proceeds in the further extension and
development of his already large estate, and to-day he and Carlos
Montijo are two of the most popular, respected, and prosperous tobacco
planters in the island. The _Thetis_, still in existence, is now the
joint property of Jack and Carlos, and in her one or the other, and
often both of them together, make frequent trips to England and
elsewhere for the purpose of personally conducting their more extensive
business transactions. She is still commanded by ex-Lieutenant Milsom,
R.N., who never tires of congratulating himself that at last he finds
himself in possession of what has every appearance of being a
permanently "soft job."
End of Project Gutenberg's The Cruise of the Thetis, by Harry Collingwood