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.
But the government was soon to be undeceived. The insurrection became a very serious matter indeed. The insurgents pursued very much the same tactics that they had followed in the Ten Years War, that is, they would seldom risk an open battle, and the Spaniards could gain but little ground against the guerilla methods of their opponents.
The Cubans were very badly equipped; in fact they had scarcely any war material whatever. They began by appropriating indiscriminately any fire arms wherever they could find them, from the repeating rifle to the shot gun with the ramrod. Many of them were armed only with revolvers, and the majority of them had simply the "machete," a knife about nineteen inches in length.
Recruits constantly came to their ranks, however, and it was not long before they numbered over six thousand.
A political crisis now took place in Spain, and the conservative party came into power. Premier Canovas then appointed as governor-general of Cuba, Martinez Campos, who had been so successful, by diplomacy rather than by anything else, in ending the Ten Years War.