itself in the eastern half of the Island, while the army under Carlixto Garcia has carried the war on more or less aggressively, having actually forced the two towns of Guaimaro and Cascorro into surrender, but fought no decisive battles.

In the four provinces constituting the other half of the Island, the strife has been carried on with a bitterness characteristic of a barbarous warfare, although, in truth, the Cuban government has earnestly endeavored to have their side of it conducted on humane principles. Notwithstanding the overwhelming number of Spanish troops in these provinces, and the activity of their operations since the beginning of the invasion, the provisional government has made its almost mysterious influence felt, owing to the same reasons that have caused the peasants in the east to accept its supremacy.

The invasion of these provinces is another of the circumstances connected with the Cuban war which have been either imperfectly understood or else misrepresented. The general idea of the invasion has been that Maximo Gomez at the head of an army came marching in from the east, sweeping everything before him with an impetuous charge. American who had been with the invading army expressed his idea of it as a "great humbug," and so it was in the sense that it has been thoroughly misrepresented.

Marti, who has been called the father of the present rebellion, set the time for the revolution to take place on the 24th of February, 1895. The fact that the rising did take place about the time set for it and met with encouragement in every part of the Island has been lost sight of. There had been numbers of secret revolutionary societies throughout the Island for years. They were in communication with Marti's society in the United States, and had furnished him with money from time to time, so that upon the day announced for the rising, many of the young men belonging to these societies in Cuba took to "the woods." Some of these were captured, others remained lurking about the country, or were pursued by the Guardia Civil. In the east, where the revolution was supposed to originate, there were a few fights, ambuscades, skirmishes, etc., in one of which Marti lost

his life.

men.

It was not till Antonio Maceo had crossed the old military line between Jucaro and Moron, that he with his general-in-chief, Maximo Gomez, was able to unite a formidable force as far as numbers were concerned, and this, according to their own figures, did not exceed 2,600 Then followed the invasion, great credit for which has been given to Maximo Gomez, when really the life and soul of it all was Antonio Maceo. The invasion was accomplished by dividing the insurgent force into fractions, with a preconcerted plan to concentrate again at a certain time and place. Thus in small bodies they were able to avoid the Spanish troops, who expected to oppose their advance, and at some point farther west where the Spanish soldiers were unprepared for them, unite and make an attack, which usually resulted to the discomfiture of the Spaniards.

While from the outset it seems to have been the policy of General Gomez to wear the Spaniards out, with his ziz-gag marches and counter-marches, Maceo's policy was to carry on a war by fighting the enemy at every opportunity. showed this while he held Pinar del Rio, the Spaniards always knowing where he was to be found, and whenever they attempted to get near him, he invariably drove them off.

He

During the western march of the two rebel generals, their comparatively small forces were constantly being increased by the incorporation of those bands which had already taken the field in compliance with the revolutionary proclamation of José Marti, and by other Cubans from the neighboring towns and villages which they passed. The consequence was that Maceo, at the least expected moment, would appear at some important town with a horde of patriots crying out for "Free Cuba." The Spanish garrison, usually of volunteers, unable to offer resistance to the impetuous multitude, would either shut themselves up in their block-house forts, or surrender. The mob would sack the town and destroy all they could not carry away with them, after which a train load of Spanish soldiers would be shipped to the desolated town, and being unable to distinguish the loyal Cubans remaining from the Cuban insurgents who had left the smoking embers behind, there would follow a frightful massacre. The invasion then

was really the march of the insurrectionary leaders into those provinces where the people had already risen, or were ready to rise against a hated foe; and it has been only for the lack of a sufficient number of competent officers to direct them that the rule of Spain was not lost forever.

During this invasion the perfectura system of the provisional government continued to be established in a remarkable way. Although the small farmers

or peasants of the central provinces were anxious to free themselves from the yoke of Spain, very few of them cared to do any fighting themselves. These farmers,

His

then, were appointed as prefectos, subprefectos, etc., by the insurgent leaders. Their duties were to supervise certain vaguely defined districts, called prefecturas. These prefecturas more often consisted of a farmer's ranch than any definite territory, with the farmer himself holding the office of prefecto. functions were those of a civil magistrate, with power to appoint and locate subprefecturas, and with like duties incumbent on the same. He was directed to superintend the planting of crops for the supply of the Cuban forces, and to keep open the means of communication between the different prefecturas. As the power of the invading forces increased the peasants trusted in their ability to succeed, and they consequently accepted the offices conferred upon or held out to them with little hesitation. For a time these farmers were able to carry on their avocations as sweet-potato farmers and agents of the revolutionary government with impunity, under the eyes of their Spanish enemies. Not infrequently they went into the Spanish garrisoned towns, sold their produce and came back to the insurgents with valuable information as to the movement of the Spanish troops. After a while, however, the Spaniards discovered their duplicity, and then began other frightful massacres.

Apart from the barbarity of the killing of unarmed people, rebels though they were, in the slaughter that followed there were many innocent people killed or transported, who had no connection whatever with the insurgents. Among the innocent ones figured chiefly the negro. In Spain it was represented that the uprising was of negro malcontents, and the troops sailed from Spain with

the idea that their enemies across the water were black; consequently, upon beginning operations beginning operations in Cuba, the Spanish soldier naturally considered that the darker a man's skin, the greater was the degree of his crime. In Guanajay I met a negro wearing the Spanish cockade on his hat, and he told me that he donned it because his little boy had been shot down in the street as a rebel by a newly-arrived soldier. He thought that the wearing of the cockade would prevent a similar mistake in his own

case.

Even the military commanders fresh from Spain, in many cases, believed their enemies were black, and bearing on this I recall an instance that came under my observation while a prisoner in Morro Castle. There were three negroes who had absolutely refused to help a wounded insurgent who was at the time a prisoner with me. The negroes were arrested shortly after the capture of the wounded man, were tried by court martial, and sentenced for life to imprisonment in chains by their Spanish judges.

When I first arrived in Cuba, there was the column commanded by General Vicunya operating in Matanzas province, which seemed to make a specialty of murdering defenseless negroes. A smaller column, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Aldea, made no discrimination in color, since, as he told me himself, all Cubans were rebels, and so he went about the country slaughtering them at every opportunity. He seemed to look upon his acts of appalling brutality as a legitimate means of warfare, and he counted his victims as a hunter would count the results of the chase. The infamous Melguizo openly declared his policy of extermination and earnestly endeavored to carry it out, while the arch-fiend of them all, Major Fonsdeviela, did not take the trouble to hunt down the pacificos in the country, but dragged them from their houses in the village which he garrisoned, and shot them down without compunction on the outskirts of the town.

When these atrocities were published in our daily papers, General Weyler persistently denied them, and expelled the correspondents discovered to have reported them. There is no question but that matters were bad enough upon the arrival of the new Captain-General, but

with his mismanagement, his ignorance of facts, and his want of military skill and sound judgment, affairs went from bad to worse. Under the lead of Antonio Maceo, the rebels were undoubtedly getting the better of him. Weyler's attempt to muzzle the press, his expulsion of correspondents, and his continual publication of false reports, showed a stupidity belonging to a past century. His muzzling the press clearly demonstrated that he was afraid of the truth, and by the publication of false reports, he tried to make himself and his supporters believe what no one else would believe. He consequently deceived himself as to the true situation in the field, while for every American correspondent whom he expelled, two others returned, already prejudiced against him, and in like proportion grew the animosity against the General in the United States.

They

Whether Weyler was earnest in the disavowal of the atrocities committed by his officers or not, it is certain that such atrocities were merely a renewal of Spanish methods in the past. They were such as he himself had practiced when a lieutenant-colonel under the "butcher" Valmaseda, save that many of the deeds imputed to the latter and his negro band were of a more shocking nature than those of the present war.

Up to the time of Weyler's arrival, the insurgent leaders had continued their march from the east to the west, often taking possession of a town or village, holding it for a day or two, sometimes sacking it, and then abandoning it to be re-occupied by the Spanish troops. This necessitated, according to the Spaniard's idea of war, the enclosure of the towns within lines of fortification, as had been done when the Moors invaded Spain a thousand years ago. In spite of the little block-house forts, which were constructed about these towns immediately upon the arrival of Weyler, Maceo not only entered the towns, but began the destruction of them. The Spaniards soon found that the block-house forts were no protection to them against the attacks of the rebels on a dark night, for while the soldiers were shut up in the forts, the enemy would ride into the town between the forts, and with the aid of petroleum fire the principal edifices of the town. Then began the construction of stone barricades, board fences and

barbed wire net-work enclosures. side these enclosures it soon began to be recognized by the Spaniards as the enemy's country, and the operations of the troops consisted in going out of a town into the country to search for rebels.

As time went on, it was discovered that the rebels allowed no one outside the Spanish lines of fortifications or enclosures, unless they were sympathizers, and willing to aid the rebellion. As this fact dawned upon Weyler, who carried his campaign on a map of Cuba with pins, he began the establishment of a blockade by prohibiting the taking of anything from the towns into the country without permission from the local military authorities. It proved, however, in most cases, an easy matter for the tobacco planter to represent that his family were in want of clothing, rice, or soap, or salt, and the consequence was that he would leave the town with a pony loaded with supplies which would promptly find their way into the hands of the insurgents. Then Weyler decreed a limit to the supplies to be taken out at any one time from the towns by each individual, but in turn women were discovered carrying out salt under their skirts, and farmers using clothing for saddle cloths. Arrests followed, and other decrees prohibiting absolutely the transportation of effects without a convoy.

At last, after overwhelming force had been brought to bear upon him, Weyler took the field himself. It was then a well established fact that there was no one living outside the towns, unless they were there with the consent of the insurgents; consequently, all of these were not only in sympathy with the revolution, but, revolution, but, unquestionably, were aiding and abetting it. So Weyler issued his proclamation giving the remaining country people, beyond a shadow of a doubt rebels, eight days in which to seek the protection of the fortified towns, after the expiration of which all those found outside would be dealt with as enemies to Spain. Considering the inability of the Spaniards to find the armed insurgents at the opportune moment, and the loose methods of the Spaniards in putting down the insurrection, about the only thing left for them to do was to clean these non-combatant rebels out of the country. This is what has been called Weyler's policy of concentration.

But, as nearly everybody in Cuba, outside of the Spanish element, is in sympathy with the Cubans, no attention was given to the fact that the insurgents were the first to inaugurate the concentration policy, by driving all non-combatants who refused or neglected to aid them into the Spanish lines, and when Weyler issued his decree of concentration, it applied to those who had remained outside, not only in sympathy with them but aiding them.

Weyler has been accused of withholding or suppressing his proclamation ordering these non-combatants to surrender, in order that he might the more readily continue his policy of extermination, but this accusation is unfounded. When Weyler took the field, the noncombatants knew what to expect from the Spanish soldiery, and some of the half-hearted ones came in. Having been outside the lines, and mingling with the people who came under this proclamation, and with them dodging the Spanish troops, I am aware that there was not one of us who did not understand perfectly well that to be caught meant death.

It was said that in Weyler's "pacification" of Pinar del Rio, his soldiers butchered six thousand non-combatants who had failed to come in, in compliance with his proclamation. Judging from my own observation, I believe this is altogether too large an estimate. I have found it a comparatively easy matter for the Cubans to escape the Spanish soldiers, and, as a general thing, it is owing only to his own carelessness that the Cuban is caught.

The massacre of pacificos really took place before Weyler went into the field, and the Cuban farmer had either decided to remain and help the insurgents or become neutral by seeking the shelter of the fortified towns. When I went through Pinar del Rio, some six months before Weyler, there were no pacificos living in the country, with the exception of a few allowed there by the insurgents in the vicinity of the mountains where the rebels had their camps. Weyler's pacification consisted in driving these few into the bushes, starving a few into surrender, killing others, and breaking up the general system of provisional government organization.

The misery and want in this province, due to the concentration of the people

who had depended upon the country for their sustenance, increased to such an extent that the authorities were obliged to issue rations to them, the same as to the soldiers, but nowhere have correspondents given the Spaniards credit for this. After the atrocities had become an old story, this starvation situation was taken up, and Weyler was made to bear the brunt of it all, deservedly perhaps.

Of Weyler's actual movements in the field, very little has been written. From my own observation of him, I judge him to be more of a theorist than a practical man, and possessed of an overwhelming amount of egotism and self-conceit. In the field, he is given to making rapid marches without due regard to the condition of his men, and apparently has no definite plan of operation, except the destroying of all that may prove of use to the insurgents. He has a temper liable to break out at the least expected moment, taking effect at times upon the inoffensive head of any subordinate who may have unintentionally excited his anger.

While I was in Sancti-Spiritus, General Weyler disembarked at Tunas, and, taking the road parallel with the railroad, marched to Sancti-Spiritus. Upon hearing that he was coming, the whole city, ordinarily a very sleepy town, was thrown into a state of excitement bordering upon a panic. A friend who had been at Tunas, brought me the news of Weyler's arrival at that port on the merchant steamer "Purisima Concepcion." He told me that he had seen Weyler on the wharf using his strap energetically upon the heads of his soldiers who did not seem to move fast enough to suit him.

Weyler preferred the road to the cars, as it was said that he was afraid to trust himself in the railroad. He took up his line of march, mounted upon a handsome horse, accompanied by his escort of negroes and a small body of infantry. As soon as the authorities at SanctiSpiritus were aware of his coming, the police were ordered to notify the householders, requesting them to decorate their windows with flags or bunting. In compliance with this request, every bit of available cloth possessed by the household was hung over the balconied windows, in the hope that Weyler's impending wrath would be appeased by this

demonstration of loyalty. In the gaudy display that followed, there figured red table cloths, pieces of striped linen and cotton hammock cloth, with an occasional rich piece of tapestry. All day long the various drapings drooped in the sweltering heat of the dusty old city. The local volunteers, in their green and yellow uniforms rested upon their guns in the central plaza, the bell-ringers lazily smoked their cigarettes under the belfreys, and the alcalde bustled about, occasionally wiping his great round goggles, and all waited to receive the man whose name is such a terror to the peaceful inhabitants of Cuba. But the sun passed the zenith and sank into the blue of the mountains, and the General had not arrived.

The next morning, before the majority of the good people of the city were out of their beds, the supreme ruler of the land came riding in attended by his body guard of ferocious looking blacks, infamous, it is said, for their cruelties in the last war. No one appeared ready for this early arrival except the bell-ringers, who immediately set up a terrible din from their respective church towers. The alcalde hastily tumbled out of bed, bugles sounded at the street corners, and while the principal citizens hastened to present themselves before the CaptainGeneral, those of less importance proceeded to hang out the draperies which they had taken in the night before.

Weyler began his work of the day by summoning into his presence the president of the Spanish Club and the backers of the gambling table which had been running under the auspices of the club. From them he extorted the name of those who had been in the habit of winning money from Spanish officers at the table, and as soon as the names were obtained, orders were given for their arrest, including no less a personage than the chief of police. By nightfall, twenty-two of the gamblers were lodged in the city prison, and the following morning six more were taken from their hiding-places. It was past midnight when the general, considering his work done, gathered together his bodyguard and left the city, taking the road for Placetas.

When Weyler first took the field, he conducted his marches with a great deal of military precision. His advance-guard consisted of picked negroes, qualified, it

is claimed, by their ferocious aspect. Behind this advance-guard, rode himself and staff, followed by another section of negro cavalry, which formed his escort. Then came a body of infantry acting as a vanguard to the artillery. After the artillery came the impedimenta, or pack train, protected by a rear-guard of infantry, then an extreme rear-guard of cavalry or guerrilleros. This is the usual formation of the main column, in addition to which are the flanqueros, or wings, consisting of guerrilla and infantry, formed in about the same order. The flanqueros, as the name signifies, are to guard the flanks, and scour the country from right to left of the main column, which invariably keeps to the highway. Even these flanqueros or wings, in their work of destruction, frequently shy the wooded portions of the country, owing to the fear of an ambush by lurking bands of rebels.

This appears to be the extent of the Captain-General's military knowledge. But after marching in this manner through the central provinces, and meeting neither a formidable army nor opposition of any kind, he divided his army into smaller columns and sent them to hunt rebels in different directions and destroy their resources, while he himself travelled back and forth with his negro cavalry, consisting of only 400 men, and a small body of infantry to protect his baggage. On his march from Tunas to Sancti-Spiritus, I was told that he ordered the train to move very slowly, in order not to frighten his horses, which were using the road by the side of the track. Upon his arrival at the little town of Guasimal, he dismounted at the protective trench surrounding the town, and demanded to know of some of the onlookers, the whereabouts of the alcalde. Of course, the alcalde had heard of his coming, and was busily looking for the great military chief inside the town. was apparent that Weyler had already concluded not to honor the town with his presence, so he stood biting his lips with a scowl marking his visage, until the alcalde was summoned into his presence.

It

Breathlessly the functionary hurried into the presence of the august chief, who demanded to know if he was not aware of his being the chief authority of the land, and that his place was to meet