The Opelousas courier., 1883-10-06

his fortune, he labored for the freedom
Of the island, not only in Havana, but
in New York, where he was very &C.
tive in his efforts to secure our recog-
milton as belligerents, and to enlist
volunteers to help Is fight the Span
iards in the field.
In consequence Of his patriotic exer-
tons he was soon a marked man
marked by the government for execu-
ton when caught. Patriots of his
stamp were seized at sight, taken
across the bay to Castle Guiana, where
they were immured in a dungeon for
a few days, or months perhaps, then
taken out and shot. Some IF the
noblest men in the island persisted like
dogs.
"This was as late as 1875, after the
Cubans had emancipated their slaves,
hoping that they would fight with
them against the common oppressor.
AS might have been foreseen, how
| ever, the most of them, went their
ways, caring very little for Cuban indie
pendence, and were easily won by
brides of the enemy to act as spies and
guides.
"This same Florencio, to whom we
have given aims, was one of my
friends liberated slaves. But he did
not leave the plantation he remained
to guard his masters property during
his many absences, and to attend to
his comforts when he came home.
cit CHANGED that my friend had
been on a secret mission to Havana,
where he was kept concealed in the
house of a compatriot for a number of
days. He entered and left the city by
night, along dark alleys, and journeyed
across the country by routes which
were known to- him from boyhood,
but which the enemy's soldiers were
Unfamiliar with.
"This, indeed, was but one of many
such trips which my friend made in
behalf of our lost cause !; and such
was his knowledge of the country that
hitherto he had been able to make
them without discovery but this time
he was betrayed.
"He had been at the plantation but
a short time, when Florencio, who had
gone out to the quinta to gather a
bunch of bananas, came hurriedly back
into the engine-house, = which my
friend, in the general wreck of his
household goods, now occupied as a
sleeping-place.
"'Por amo de cielo, maestro amado,
los soldados = (For Heavens sake,
dear master, the soldiers are here y he
exclaimed.
stepping to the window, my friend
saw that a troop of cavalry was riding
furiously up to the plantation, deploy-
ing as they came on, to throw a Gordon
of troopers round the mill.
To escape by flight was impossible ;
and he well knew what capture meant.
Yet my friends GOODNESS did not for
sake him.
"tClose the shutters he said to the
negro, 'and bar the door. But open
it when they summon you, and say that
/ have gone. They will not hurt you,
I think
"The furnace Of the engine had a
broad mouth, for consuming the green
bregasse of the sugar-cane as fuel.
My friend crept into the fre-box, and
regardless Of SCOT and dust, made his
way up the inside Of the narrow brick
1ue, to a kind Of widened jog or jamb,
in the brick-Work, where he was able
to stand, and where he would be out
of sight, even to n looking up the
fue from inside the fire-box.
"Florencio closed the furnace-door
behind him, on the instant, and had
scarcely gained his perch on the jamb,
when, without waiting to knock, or
order the door opened, the soldiers
burst it in with the tongue of an old
cane cart that lay in the yard. Then
my friend heard himself perempto-
rily inquired for a a cursed traitor
and rebel by the captain of the
troop.
aFlorencio replied that his master
had been there, but had gone.
"You black hound! = shouted the
officer, tell me where he is in
stantly, or I win have you hayed
alive 7
"Florencio answered that he had
nothing to tell, that his master had
gone.
"The soldiers then searched the en-
gine-house and all the other parts of
the mill. Theyeven looked in the fire.
box, and stirred up the heap of cinders
at the bottom of it.
.Then my friend again heard the
officer order FIorencio to tell where
his master had gone. But the faith
full fellow persistently replied that he