The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-03-19
U'KeIly's Great Feat OF Reaching tho
Cuban Camp-The Heroes OF the
Independent Press.

Cuban Camp-The Heroes OF the
Independent Press.
The dispatches from Havana which we
print on another page of the HERALD, contain
ing intelligence direct from our Special Com
missioner, written in the insurgent camp, CON-
firm fully the information already published
of his having arrived there. The interesting
missives themselves are in the hands OF our
correspondent at Havana and in the hand
writing of Mr.. O'Kelly. From them will be
learned what perils and almost deadly fatigues
he has bravely undergone in the performance
of his duty. After leaving the city of Santiago
de Cuba on the 10Th of February he journeyed
into the mountains, accompanied by five
Cuban guides. Owing to the steepness of the
mountains over which the trail led he was
obliged on the night of the first day out to
abandon his horse and proceed on foot to his
destination. The fatigue consequent on this
effort must have been, as he describes, very
great for it was equally dangerous to halt or
turn back In letter to friend in
Santiago de Cuba he says that when he
comes to write in full the story of that terrible
toll he will be accused of writing romance.
Passing, indeed in the vicinage of the Spanish
outposts and over such rugged country, the
trouble and fatigue must have equalled the
peril he ran But the unconquerable heart
was rewarded with throb of pleasure at
last as on the 22d ult. he tramped YEARLY
into the outlying encampment Of the Cuban
patriots. .-. go. 49, 49,. ...'' a." ~ ~-
This unselish devotion to duty in q jour
nalist will challenge the highest praise
wherever through the wide world it is read of.
1t will stand fifty beside the achievement per-
formed by Mr.. Stanley in the heart of Africa,
and will have this deeper element of chivalry
in it that it was done not in the face of igno-
rant savages, but in the teeth of the army
of civilized Power given, like its Cuban
means in the conduct Of its war. Mr..
OKely had, then, no other assurance of
his safety in returning to the Spanish lines
than his own stout heart could find in the
equivocation of the Spanish officials who
threatened him with death should he be once
caught after seeking and finding the rebels.
1t was many days after his arrival in the rebel
camp that Captain General Ceballos took the
wiser and humane course of counternanding
the brutal threat of General Morales and sim
ply ordering Mr.. OKelly's expulsion from the
island on his temperance. This journey,
therefore, apart from its physical difficulties,
becomes heroic, for its penalty at the time
was, OF appeared to be, death. Had
he been Cuban spy, as General Morales alb
surdly, and with knowledge of its inconse-
quence, insisted, the action would be measur-
able by the acts Of many brave men who have
| staked all on o partisan cause. Mr. O'Kelly,
on the contrary, took sides with neither Span
lard nor Cuban, but risked his life with both in
the cause, as wide as humanity-the cause Of
impartial and fearless truth. From no
other secular power in the world beside
the independent press could he re-
ceive the credentials which made
him the ambassador of truth. Neither
Emperor, King nor President could sign the
brevet of an emissary in such case whose
mission would be the collection of uncolored
facts between two peoples fighting for what
are called ideas. Such an envoy would, how
ever upright in intention, be forever under
the suspicion of viewing facts as his mas
ter would wish to see them. This fact
would discount his statements Of what he
had seen, and would, above ALL tell heavily
against the implicit acceptance of his deduc-
tons. Either, as in olden times, the searcher
after truth must represent only what honesty
is centred in himself or must go forward
pledged on the faith of the Independent press
as o man above suspicion and reproach. In
the latter weighty representative capacity Mr.
O'Kelly began his mission; recognizing
its grave responsibility he has carried
it on, and, unbending to threat or
cajolery, will he continue, with the
best efforts of his manhood, to reach its
fair conclusion. The Empire, the Monarchy
or the Republic which the envoy of any of
them would represent might pass away, as they
have passed but the great spirit of truth and
justice is an undying entity, and the man
charged with its mission in any spot of the
earth has to remember that he is in the
The Cubans have taken up arms
because they connect Spanish rule
with tyranny and injustice and @
lack of right to govern them. The
Spaniards defend their rule in Cuba because
they believe that long possession gives them
their right to rule; that Cubans are merely
transplanted Spaniards, and have no just
cause to rebel. The Spaniards have large
army in the field in the assertion of their
right, and the Cubans have force not so
large perched on the mountains and hidden
among the valleys in affirmation of their cause.
Each is anxious that the world should believe
in the possibility of its vanquishing its enemy,
and both profess fearlessnessOf the world judg-
inc them bv their force their acts and their in