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.