Cuba Part 8

The Cuban planter had to struggle along with a heavy tax on his crop, an enormous duty on his machinery, and an additional duty at the port of destination.

America once rose in wrath against unjust taxation, but her grievances were as nothing in comparison with those of--we had almost written--her sister republic. May the inadvertency prove a prophecy!

To show how the products of Cuba, under this ghastly extortion have declined, we make the following statement, based on the most reliable statistics.

In 1880 Cuba furnished twenty-five per cent. of all the sugar of the world. In 1895 this had declined to ten and a half per cent. In 1889, the export of cigars rated at forty dollars per one thousand amounted to ten millions, nineteen thousand and forty dollars. In 1894 it was five millions, three hundred and sixty-eight thousand, four hundred dollars, a loss of nearly one-half in five years.

Then besides all this, Cuba had to pay the high salaries of the horde of Spanish officials, nothing of which accrued to her advantage.

There can be no doubt but that the treaty of El Zanjon was a cheat, and its administration a gigantic scandal.

Can any fair-minded person think then that the Cubans were wrong, when driven to the wall, oppressed beyond measure, goaded to madness by an inhuman master, they broke out once again into open revolt, determined this time to fight to the death or to obtain their freedom?

CHAPTER VII.

SOME CUBAN HEROES.

Although the natural resources of Cuba are remarkable, as will be demonstrated later, and more than sufficient for all her people, a large number of Cubans have, either of their own free will or by force become exiles.

Besides over forty thousand in the United States, there are a large number in the islands under British control, as well as throughout the West Indies and in the South American republics.

It is perfectly natural that these exiles should feel the deepest interest in their native land, and although Spain has complained frequently of being menaced from beyond her borders, what else could she expect after the way in which she treated these exiled sons of hers?

Besides she has had no just cause for grievance, as the right for foreign countries to furnish asylums to political offenders has been recognized from time immemorial, and, unless some overt act be committed, there can be no responsibility on the part of such foreign countries.

Enough perhaps has been said to show that the Cubans had every reason to once again rise in revolt, but in order that there may be no doubt as to the justice of their cause, let us recapitulate:

Spain has invariably drawn from the island all that could be squeezed out of it.

In spite of her protests she has never done anything for Cuba, all her aim being to replenish her own exhausted treasury and to enrich the functionaries of the Spanish government.

While Cuba is a producing country, she has been refused the right to dispose of her produce to other countries except at ruinous rates, in spite of the fact that Spain herself could not begin to consume all that Cuba had to offer. The market of the island, by the way, from the very nature of things, is the United States, and not Spain.

The rules which limit importation have been most rigid. For instance, American flour cannot enter Cuba free of duty, while it enters as a free product into Spain.

Spain has governed Cuba with a most arbitrary hand. The island has had nothing whatever to say as to the management of its own affairs.

The Cubans have purposely been kept in a state of ignorance, the system of education amounting practically to nothing.

The Spaniards have never kept one promise made, but after each promise have increased their oppression and tyranny.

In 1894 Senor Sagasta laid before the Cortes a project for reform in Cuba; but the sense of this project was confused in the extreme; there was little hope that a reform planned with such little method could meet with any degree of successful realization. In fact there was little or no possibility that the abuses under which the island groaned would be removed.

At last patience ceased to be a virtue. The present rising in Cuba was begun toward the close of 1894. The leader was Jose Marti, a poet and orator, who was then in New York. He at the outset, was the very soul of the revolutionary movement, and he held in his hands the threads of the conspiracy.

He was a man of charming and captivating personality, strong in his own convictions and devoted body, heart and soul to the interests of his country.

He was the son of a Spanish colonel and when quite young was condemned, for what reason has never been known, to ten years imprisonment in Havana. Afterwards, he was sentenced to the galleys for life.

When the amnesty was declared, after the Ten Years War, he was given back his freedom, but his resentment still continued and he vowed his life to obtaining the liberty of Cuba.

He went first to Central America, and afterwards took up his residence in the United States.

Everywhere he preached what he considered a holy war. Here and there he gathered together contributions, which he sent to Cuba for the secret purchase of arms and ammunition. He met with many rebuffs and disappointments, but not for one moment did he doubt the justice of his cause or its ultimate success. He was not a visionary man, but there were those even among the ones he had won over by his impa.s.sioned words who looked upon him as the victim of hallucinations. That this was not true, the events of the past few years have fully proven.

Marti organized his first expedition in New York, and set sail for Cuba with three vessels, the Lagonda, the Amadis and the Baracoa, containing men and war materials. This expedition was stopped, however, by the United States authorities.

Later, Marti joined Gomez, Cromlet, Cebreco and the Maceo brothers, all of whom had fought in the Ten Years War, at Santo Domingo, which was Gomez' home.

Some description of these men, all of whom have done magnificent work for the freedom of their country, may not be out of place.

Maximo Gomez is about seventy-five years of age, and he may perhaps be termed the "Was.h.i.+ngton" of the fight for liberty. It will be remembered that he was a leader in the Ten Years War. He is a man of excellent judgment, and, in spite of his years, of marvelous mental and physical activity. No better man could the insurgents have selected as their general-in-chief.

Flor Cromlet was a guerilla of unquestioned valor, who lost his life early in the campaign, but his name will live in the annals of free and independent Cuba. His mother was a mulatto, but his father was a Spaniard.

The Maceo brothers have been particularly distinguished. They were born of colored parents, and were of the type of the mulatto. Both were men of indomitable courage. Antonio Maceo was born at Santiago de Cuba in 1848. At the beginning of the Ten Years War, he was a mule driver, and could neither read nor write. He was one of the first to enlist in the Cuban army, and soon showed his courage and intelligence. He was rapidly promoted to superior rank and became a terror to the Spanish army. Their one idea seemed to be to capture him, but apparently he possessed a charmed life. During his leisure moments, which it can be imagined were but few, he managed to learn to read and write. He was one of the last combatants to lay down his arms in the former war, and then only because he saw that further struggle would only end in loss of life without the winning of liberty.

He was exiled and then travelled through America, studying constantly and ever endeavoring to improve himself. Here was a poor, obscure, descendant of slaves who by sheer perseverance, of course coupled with natural ability, afterward held the armies of a great nation at bay.

Antonio Maceo was killed in Havana province in 1896, probably through the treachery of one of his followers, and his brother died, but not until both had accomplished wonderful deeds of valor. It is a pity that they could not have lived to see the results of their unselfish patriotism.

Another mulatto who has won fame in the cause of "Free Cuba" is Augustin Cebreco.

The "Marion of Cuba," as he was called, Nestor Aranguren, must not be forgotten. He was at the head of a little band of men, all members of the best Havana families and graduates of the university. He was very much like the "Swamp Fox" of our Revolution in the way he would undertake some daring raid, and then retreat into the long gra.s.s of the Manigua to rest his tired horses and recruit his men. One of his most famous exploits was the capture of a train at the very gates of Havana.

Aranguren treated his captives most kindly, with one exception, and in this he was justified. A man named Barrios had often informed against the insurgents, and he was condemned to death. Of him, Aranguren said: "That Cuban must die. I must rid my country of such an unnatural son.

Thank G.o.d, there are few such traitors!"

The rest were allowed to go free.

To one of the Spaniards who were on the train, Aranguren said:

"If Spain should grant a generous and liberal autonomy, peace is not only possible, but probable; but, if she should persevere in her false colors, she will not regain control of this island, until every true soldier of Cuba is dead, and that will take a long time."

The ill-fated Aranguren died at the age of twenty-four.

It was not until May, 1895, that Marti and the other leaders thought it wise to go to Cuba. When they reached there, they found that the insurgents had already commenced the rebellion and had even gained some ground.

At first the Spanish authorities looked upon the insurrection as a trivial matter, nothing more serious than a negro riot.

They believed that it would be speedily suppressed as Spain had then in the island an army of nineteen thousand men, besides the fifty thousand volunteers, who could be called on in case of need. But, to make all sure, seven thousand more soldiers were sent over from Spain.

In addition to this, many men, who afterward were among the leaders of the insurgent party expressed their unqualified disapproval of the movement. And in this, they were undoubtedly sincere, as they had not the slightest idea that it could succeed.

The general lack of sympathy and the universal criticism that met the little band of revolutionists unquestionably contributed much toward the relaxation of the vigilance of the government.