New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-04-18
CrR1Y FILIBLSTEEING.

The Spanish Minister has received ln>lEc-
tiOns from Madrid to protest against the ncGil-
gcncc of the United States officials on the coast
of Florida Apparently there is just cause fol
complaint. General Carlos AgucrO arrived at
Key West on March % from Ncw-Orleans.
lie was 10 stranger, for he had once been ar
rested there and imprisoned in the county jail
for month on q rcquisit0n from the Spanish
Government. His active participation in Cuban
revolutionary movements was no secret, and
he took no pains to conceal his intention of
landing on the island with an armed band of
sympathizers. For week he remained in port,
and on the night of April l embarked
on small schooner with a force of twenty
men. The Spanish Consul, whose suspicious
had been excited, saw him go on board and
promptly informed the Federal authorities.
The vessel had got ont of the harbor and there
was no steam craft in readiness TO pursue her.
On the following morning a revenue cutter was
sent out, and subsequently two men-Of-war and
two revenue cutters cruised of the Cuban coast
in search of the filibustering expedition.
Aguero had reached land thirty-siX hours after
leaving Key West. The hours wasted by the
customs officials after they had been informed
of his departure had enabled him to escape.
Apparently the evidence OF official negligence
is conclusive, for the Government, without wait
ing for the remOnstrance of the Spanish Cabinet
have taken measures to remove the Collector of
the Port of Key West on account of his SYM
pathy and collision with the Cuban tilibusters.
The movement headed by General Aguero
does not appear to be formidable. The first
reports of his proceedings were grossly exag-
II Il cd o1u ~
steadily, gaining recruits in every village he
entered, and increasing his force to fourteen
hundred men during ten days. The Spanish
officials were reported to be panic stricken and
unable to offer serious resistance to his victor
ious march. Official advices from Havana do
not confirm these elastic rumOrs. The Cuban
leader landed at Cape. Hicucos a long distance
from the eastern end of the island, which has
always been the bed of instruction. His
design evidently was to push his way through
the Cardenas district into the interior, making
Puerto Principe OF Bayamo the objective point
of future operations. The statement that he
has already gained large accessions of men, and
is burning plantations where he is not well re-
ceived, is not to be hastily accepted II is more
Pre- bable that he has been forced TO divide his
little band into several groups in order to avoid
pursuit, and that he will be captured within
fortnight. Spanish authority is not to be over
turned BY dozen or score of desperate adj
yenturers OF soldiers of fortune. Lopez, land
ing in the same quarter of the island In 1850,
was unable to make any impression, although
he had force of six hundred patriots. Re-
turning the next year to reopen the campaign
with as large a force, ho was rcpulsed. captured
and executed. Subsequent expeditions were
more successful, but there was then formid-
able revolt with revolutionary government in
the eastern quarter