Such a style of warfare is always cruel and accompanied by outrages of a shocking character. The Cubans were as savage in their methods as the Spaniards. They blew up bridges and railroad trains with dynamite, regardless of the fact that, in so doing, it was the innocent instead of the guilty who suffered. They burned the sugar cane, destroyed the tobacco and coffee plantations, and impoverished the planters in order to shut off the revenues of Spain and deprive her forces of their needed supplies; they spread desolation and ruin everywhere, in the vain hope that the mother country could thus be brought to a realizing sense of the true situation.
But Spain was deaf and blind. She sent thousands of soldiers across the Atlantic, including the members of the best families in the kingdom, to die in the pestilential lowlands of Cuba, while trying to stamp out the fires of revolution that continually grew and spread.
The island was cursed by three political parties, each of which was strenuous in the maintenance of its views. The dominant party of course was the loyalists, who held all the offices and opposed any compromise with the insurgents. They were quite willing to make promises, with no intention of fulfilling them, but knew the Cubans could no longer be deceived.
The second party was the insurgents, who, as has been shown, had "enlisted for the war," and were determined not to lay down their arms until independence was achieved. The autonomists stood between these extremes, favoring home rule instead of independence, while admitting the misgovernment of Cuba.
JOSÉ MARTI.
President of the Cuban Revolutionary Party.
Led into ambush and killed by the Spaniards,
May 19, 1895.
The Spaniards were determined to prevent the coming of Antonio Maceo, a veteran of the Ten Years' War, possessed of great courage and resources, who was living in Costa Rica. They knew he had been communicated with and his presence would prove a tower of strength to the insurgents. Bodies of Spanish cavalry galloped along the coasts, on the alert to catch or shoot the rebel leader, while the officials closely watched all arrivals at the seaports for the feared rebel.
Despite these precautions, Maceo and twenty-two comrades of the previous war effected a landing on the eastern end of the island. They were almost immediately discovered by the Spanish cavalry, and a fierce fight followed, in which several Cubans were killed. Maceo fought furiously, seemingly inspired by the knowledge that he was again striking for the freedom of his country, and he came within a hair of being killed. He eluded his enemies, however, and, plunging into the thickets, started for the interior to meet the other insurgent leaders. The abundance of tropical fruits saved him from starving, and it was not long before he met with straggling bodies of his countrymen, who hailed his coming with enthusiasm. Recruits rapidly gathered around him, and he placed himself at the head of the ardent patriots.
It was just ten days after the landing of Maceo that Gomez and José Marti, coming from Santo Domingo, landed on the southern coast of Cuba. They had a lively time in avoiding the Spanish patrol, but succeeded in reaching a strong force of insurgents, and Gomez assumed his duties as commander-in-chief. Recruits were gathered to the number of several thousand, and Gomez and Marti started for the central provinces with the purpose of formally establishing the government. Marti was led astray on the road by a treacherous guide and killed.