Life, liberty and property have all been sacrificed by these determined patriots for the sake of the cause they love. Their towns have been burned, their homes pillaged, their wives and children starved, and in many sections of the island nothing but ruin and waste meets the eye. Even their sick and wounded are not safe from the oppressor's sword, and wherever the insurgents have a hospital, they have a garrison to protect it. Each of the six provinces has an insurgent hospital, with a staff of physicians and nurses, and a detachment of the army.
The largest of these lies in that part of Santa Clara called the Isthmus of Zapata. It is a wild, swampy region, through which the natives alone can distinguish those precarious tracks, where the slightest deviation means being engulfed in the treacherous morass.
A DETERMINED RESISTANCE.
A prominent Cuban, who may be said to speak for his entire race, makes this declaration:
"The population of the island is, in round numbers, 1,600,000, of which less than 200,000 are Spaniards, some 500,000 are colored Cubans, and over 800,000 white Cubans. Of the Spaniards, a small but not inconsiderable fraction, although not taking an active part in the defense of our cause, sympathize with, and are supporting it in various ways. Of the Cubans, whether colored or white, all are in sympathy with the revolution, with the exception of a few scattered individuals who hold positions under the Spanish government or are engaged in enterprises which cannot thrive without it. All of the Cubans who have had the means and the opportunity to join the revolutionary army have done so, while those who have been compelled for one reason or another to remain in the cities are co-operating to the best of their abilities. If the people of the small section of the western part of the island, which yet remains quiet, were supplied with arms and ammunition they would rise, to a man, within twenty-four hours.
"This revolution of the whole Cuban people against the government of Spain is what the Spanish officials are pleased to describe as a disturbance caused by a few adventurers, robbers, bandits, and assassins! But they have a purpose in so characterizing it, and it is no other than to justify, in some way, the war of extermination which the Prime Minister of Spain himself has declared will be waged by his government against the Cuban people. They are not yet satisfied with the rivers of human blood with which in times past they inundated the fields of Italy, of the Low Countries, of our continent of America, and only a few years ago, of Cuba itself. The Spanish newspaper of Havana, 'El Pueblo,' urges the Spanish soldiers to give no quarter, to spare no one, to kill all, all without exception, until they shall have torrents of Cuban blood in which to bathe themselves. It is well. The Cubans accept the challenge, but they will not imitate their tyrants and cover themselves with infamy by waging a savage war. The Cubans respect the lives of their Spanish prisoners, they do not attack hospitals, and they cure and assist with the same care and solicitude with which they cure and assist their own, the wounded Spaniards who may fall into their hands. They have done so from the beginning of the war, and they will not change their humane policy.
"The Spanish officials have also attempted to convince you that the Cuban war is a war of races. Of what races? Of the black against the white? It is not true, and the facts plainly show that there is nothing of the kind. Nor is the war waged by Cubans against the Spaniards as such. No. The war is waged against the government of Spain, and only against the government of Spain and the officials and a few monopolists, who, under it, live and thrive upon the substance of the Cubans. We have no ill feeling against the thousands of Spaniards who industriously and honestly make their living in Cuba.
"But with the Spanish government we will make no peace, and we will make no compromise. Under its rule there will be nothing for our people but oppression and misery. For years and years the Cuban people have patiently suffered, and in the interests of the colony, as well as in the interests of the metropolis, have earnestly prayed for reforms. Spain has not only turned a deaf ear to the prayers, but instead of reforming the most glaring abuses, has allowed them to increase and flourish, until such a point has been reached that the continuation of Spanish rule means for the Cuban people utter destruction."