, 1876-11-11

ed of representation in the Spanish Cortes, a
right which they had hitherto enjoyed. The
flibustering expeditions of Lopez in 1S50.5l
had many sympathlsers among them, and the
severity with which all who were in any way
connected with them were punished left a
wound which was never healed. Rather on
vague suspicion than because Of any actual
completely in the rash enterprise. many scores
of Cubans of good family were confined in the
Moro, banished to Ceuts, or put to death by
the garotte. Spaniards absorbed every official
post. and the people we're heavily taxed, often
under pretence of public improvements, roads,
&c, which it was never intended to carry out,
except on paper. At length, in 1866, the
e~xactiOns of the ruling caste were found into
lerable, while they, in their own selfish in.
%terests, we're bitterly opposed to any attempt
at reform. In that year the Cubans In des.
pair petiOred Queen Isabella for redress, and
a Commission was appointed, which, as il in
mockery, while pretending to carry out the
wishes of the islanders in the matter of fnan-
cal reform, virtually doubled the amount pre-
viously wrung from them in taxation. Thence
forward the instruction was merely a matter
of time. Towards the middle of October, 1868,
it at last broke out at Bayamo, under the
leadership of Cespedes, d little prematurely,
through the treachery Of the guardian of the
insurgents chest. When Cespedes was asked
by some whose hearts were fainter than his
own with what arms they were to fight. be
answered in the very spirit of an ancient
Spartan, "With those OF our enemies ~ And
so with cheers for Prim, seizing arms wherever
they could find them, the Cubans advanced to
within a short distance Of Santiago, where they
remained for a time, till compelled to retreat
into the interior by the arrival of Spanish REIN
forCements. 1t is clear that the serious charao.
ter of the movement was not at FIRST under
stood, and that the Spaniards, in spite of the
large sums raised in taxation, had not sufficient
forces to maintain order in the island. They
have since made gigantic efforts to repair their
error. In the first two years of the %iusurreo.
ton, we are assured, 10000 men, including
regular troops and volunteers, Wore sent out
from Spain, and from $4,000 to 10000 have
followed in every subsequent year, only to be
decimated by yellow fever, by the change Of
climate, and by harassing skirmishes.
The struggle was waged without mercy.
The Spanish volunteers, consisting in great
part Of the scum of Havana and of recruits of
the same stamp from Spain, acted with savage
f%erooi:y, shooting s~triplings and women by
wholesale, and t%orturing the unfortunate prison
ers who fell into their hands, even to the
unofending planters, who were caught between
two fires. Thenceforward it became war to
the knife. Nor were the insurgents behind.
hand in reducing to ashes the hacienda of any
proprietor who was lukewarm in bis sympa.
thies. or in ruthlessly destroying whatever
might, under any circumstances, be Of use to
the enemy. Soon after the first outbreak, the
Insurgents numbered about as, 900 armed men.
They FASTENED to establish the semblanoe Of
a regular Government, and on April 10, 1869,
1.-the Chamber of Representatives Of the Free
People of Cuba" met at Guaimaro, a little
town in the centre of the island, proclaimed q
Federal Republic, and drew up a formal con-
s%titution, with a Legislature, judicature, and
executive. Cespedes was chosen their first
President. The Cubans have made many
attempts to obtain recognition from the United
States, but the revolution which for a time
established a Republican Government In Spain
told against them at Washington, and the
prompt and cODoiliatory action of CASTELAR, in
the affair Of the 'Virginius' disappointed them,
when the armed Intervention Of the United
States was all but assured. The story Of the
Inflated ship is related at length by NJ.
PirOn. And even after this lapse of time, it Is
difficult to read or to write of it as q mere
matter of history.
In March, 1874, Cespedes, when about to
cross over to Jamaica, was betrayed by a
negro servant, and after a desperate struggle,
finding himself mortally wounded, shot himself
With bis revolver, to avoid falling alive into the
hands of the 6paniards, and still breathing.