The record-union., 1897-01-14
Thinks It Will End in the Pacifcation
of the Island.
Columns Preceded by Bands of Torch
men, Who kindle Fires on Every
Side After Plundering the Houses
Farmers and Their Families Taken
Before the Chiefs of Columns and
Threatened With Death II They Do
Not Go to the Towns to Live.

NEW YORK. Jan. 13.-A Havana
special to the sun says: General Wey
Ter continues the war of determination
and destruction which, in his opinion,
Will end with the pacification Of the
island. From Governed to Tumbadero.
distance of ten miles, in Havana
province, many farms have been burned
by the Spanish troops. This means
a loss of $500 900 worth of property and
the misery of hundreds of families.
Weyler attributes these outrages to
the insurgent band, though everybody
knows they are the work of Spanish
columns under the special instructions
of the Captain-General.
A farmer of Governed, whose small
property was reduced TO ashes and who
was deprived of all resources, with a
wife and six children TO support, said
that the columns are preceded by bands
of tOrchmen, who kindle fires on every
side after plundering the houses. The
farmers and their families are taken
before the chiefs of the columns and
threatened with death.
The Spaniards say that they do not
want the people to live in the country,
but to gather in the towns, no matter
how poor they are or how much they
need the produce of their farms for
their daily sustenance.
If anyone dares to protest against
living in the towns because he has
nothing to live on there, he is fmme-
diately killed. The result of this bar
barous policy is the reinforcement of
the insurgent army by hundreds of re-
Cruits daily, who are obliged to choose
between starvation in the cities or
fighting against those who destroy
their means of gaining a livelihood.
Governed is a station on the United
Railway of Havana, and the farms
which surround it are mostly tobacco
plantations. Weyler's object in order
ing the destruction of all that part of
the country is to deprive the insurge.9t
bands of Havana province of food re-
sources. as he believes they live on
what the farmers provide them.
This policy irritates the Spaniards in
Havana who own property in the
country or are interested in agriculture
1t is perfectly true that they are try
ing to influence Madrid to recall Wey-
ler But they do not dare to freely ex-
press their opinions. as they fear the
resentment of the Spanish immigrants,
who highly approve of Weyler's sys-
tenn of eXterminating the natives
GOMEZ Is FIRM.
NEW YORK, Jan. 13.-A Washing
ton dispatch to the Sun says: Senior
Quesada, the Charge dAffaires of the
Cuban Legation, states that the per-
sistent reports that General Gomez is
making proposals for a settlement of
the war as just as untrue as the dis
patches from Madrid representing that
the offer of mediation by the United
States has been accepted.
Senior Quesada sad There is no
truth in all those assertions. They are
sent out merely as a part of the Span
ish policy to delay the inevitable out
come of the war. There is not a Cuban
on the island nor in this country who
does not know that anything less than
absolute independence for Cuba means
a continuation of the ruinous rule
which has oppressed it's people and
which has caused this war, as it did
the one which preceded it.
Maxine Gomez is the last man in
the world to be suppliant for Spanish
mercy. He is a soldier without fear
and is inspired with the most devout
confidence in the success of the cause
he is SO valiant in upholding Even
now, while the Spanish are filling the
with these allegations
about his desire for peace on other
terms than absolute independence, he is
having read to his armies and to the
commands of other leaders the declara-
tion that was issued by Jose Marti and
himself in April, 1898.
That has become the gossip of every
patriot who is struggling in behalf of
Cuban liberty, and you might as we'll
try to make devout Christian deny his
Bible as to endeavor to make a Cuban
disregard the words of Marti and
Gomez"
A member of the Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations, when asked yes
terday as to the truth of the report
that Spain is preparing to grant au-
tonomy to Cuba, said:
why, as to autonomy of Cuba, that
is merely an iridescent dream In 9th
er words. it is nonsense; nothing but
can be granted to Cuba
now. and she will accept nothing less"
The delegation of Afro-Americans
appointed at the mass meeting of Gu
ban sympathizers in New York City on
December 18th, to lay before Congress
the resolutions then adopted have ar
rived in Washington and will appear
before the Senate Committee on For
eign Relations to-day and before the
House committee Thursday. The mem
bers will pledge to the Cuban cause the
patriotic services of 10000 men of Afri-
can descent in case the Spanish Gov
ernment should make war upon the
United States as a result of the inter
ference of the Government in behalf of
Cuba.