Mr. Hyatt's letter of December 21 deals largely with the sickness and the death rate on the island, which he characterizes as appalling. "Statistics," he says, "make a grievous showing, but come far short of the truth. The disease is generally brought on by insufficient food. It is sometimes called paludal fever, and at others la grippe, and it is epidemic rather than contagious. From 30 to 40 per cent of the people were afflicted with it."
He also reported smallpox and yellow fever as prevailing, and said that out of a total of sixteen thousand soldiers recently sent to Manzanillo, nearly five thousand were in hospitals or quartered on the people. He says that Dr. Gaminero, United States sanitary inspector, reported at that time that there were more than twelve thousand people sick in bed, not counting those in military hospitals. This is at least 35 per cent of the present population. Mr. Hyatt adds that quinine, the only remedy of avail, is sold ten times higher than in the United States. He says that steamers coming into port give out soup once a day to the waiting throngs, and that fresh meat sells at from 50 cents to $1 a pound.
CONDEMNED TO A LIVING DEATH.
Every ten days or so crowds of handcuffed men are driven through the streets of Havana, which they will never tread again, on their way to the transport ship which will convey them to the penal settlements on the African coast. Many of these men represent the elite of Cuban society. Seldom is a direct charge brought against them. Police spies denounce them as Cuban sympathizers. They are given no trial, that they may prove the charges false. On administrative order they are sentenced to exile for life, and frequently the source of their misfortune can be traced to private revenge or personal feeling. Since the beginning of the war at least ten thousand prominent citizens have been torn from their native island, families and friends, and sent to life exile in the filthy, overcrowded, deadly swamps of Fernando Po. With a little money and good health it is possible to survive in Ceuta, but none ever returns from Fernando Po. On the 23d of March a large party of citizens of the Matanzas district passed through Havana on their way to the transport. It was a sad procession. Hopeless, jaded, despairing men, with arms tied behind them and feet shackled, forced to leave Cuba and face a slow, horrible death. On the train from Matanzas two of these unfortunates were literally shot to pieces. The guards reported they tried to escape and were shot in the attempt. Their fellow-prisoners told a different story. "The two men were deliberately taken out on the platform between the cars and fired upon. And the soldiers would give no reason." The action could likely be traced to personal revenge.
For three-quarters of a century the misgovernment of Spain in Cuba was a neighborhood shame and scandal to the people of the United States. Warning off the interference of any other foreign nation, under the policy known as the "Monroe Doctrine," the American people witnessed the repeated efforts of a less favored nation of this hemisphere to release itself from the grasp of the oppressor. They witnessed at the periods of each of these revolts their own ships of war patroling the southern coast and the waters adjacent to Cuba to intercept any young Americans whose sympathies might lead them to join the Cuban cause, and they acquiesced, because the law as it stood exacted it. They witnessed in more than one of these revolts, when some young Americans, who had eluded the vigilance of United States cruisers, landed on the island and were captured by Spanish troops. These young men stood against the walls of Morro Castle and were shot like dogs, because their government was powerless under the law to aid them. They witnessed the offers on the part of their government at various times to terminate the continued scandal upon civilized government at one of the doorways of their country by the purchase of the island for a generous sum of money, and the rejections of such propositions by Spain.
The American people finally realized that peace could never come to Cuba until it was imposed by the action of the United States, and the opinion gradually grew that neither international obligations nor a desire for the maintenance of friendly relations with Spain could justify our government in permitting these outrages to continue at our doors.
CHAPTER XXX.
OUTRAGES ON AMERICANS IN CUBA.
How Spain Pays Her Debts—An Old Soldier's Experience—The Case
of Pedro Casanova—Destruction of Property—Robbery and Murder—A
Cruel Attack—The Insurgents to the Rescue—Hiding in a Cane
Field—The Appeal to the Consul—Intervention Justifiable.
Many American citizens in Cuba have been confined in Spanish prisons, a number have been sent to the penal colonies, the property of some has been confiscated, and others have been murdered in cold blood. A celebrated case, which shows how slowly the wheels of justice sometimes revolve, was that of Antonio Maximo, a naturalized American citizen. He was condemned to death, and his estates declared the property of the government, by order of a court-martial, in 1870. He was charged with participating in the revolution then going on in Cuba and convicted, in spite of the fact that he was not residing on the island. The United States demanded restitution and indemnification, and in 1873 the Spanish republic admitted that the claim was just. The decree was confirmed in 1876 by the royal government, but the authorities in Cuba delayed its execution until the estates were in ruins. Spain finally offered the sum of 1,500,000 pesos as indemnity, and this offer was accepted in 1886. The Cortes, however, made no appropriation for the payment, and in 1888 the Spanish minister of state attempted to affix to the agreement the new condition that certain claims of Spanish subjects should be adjudicated and settled simultaneously. Secretary Bayard rejected the proposition, and our government continued to urge the Spanish authorities to fulfill their contract. On June 12, 1895, Secretary Olney instructed Hannis Taylor, United States minister at Madrid, to ask Spain to give assurances that she would settle the claim within two months. The Spanish government then offered to pay the principal of the claim, and the claimant agreed to forego the interest. On September 14, the original claimant having died, the Spanish government paid $1,499,000, equal to 1,500,000 pesos, in settlement of the long-standing claim.