At one time Spain had vast possessions in the New World. Louisiana, Florida, Mexico, the Central American States, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and the Argentine Republic were all under the rule of Spain.
One by one these countries have thrown off the Spanish yoke; Cuba is only following in their footsteps, and yet while the mother country has been content to receive valuable considerations for her other provinces, she declares that to surrender Cuba would be to forfeit her honor.
Affairs in Madrid are approaching a crisis. It is rumored that within two weeks General Azcarraga will cease to be Prime Minister, and that Señor Sagasta will be called to take command of the affairs of State. Sagasta, as we have told you, has very broad views about Cuba, and wishes for nothing so much as peace with the unhappy little island.
The affairs of the election in Cuba are progressing quietly.
The election should have taken place on September 1st, but the bad roads made travelling so difficult that some of the most important members of the Assembly were unable to get to the meeting, and so the business of electing a President has had to be postponed for a few days.
The Cubans say that the first work of the new administration must be to establish a government for peace. Up to the present time their thoughts have all been directed toward preserving the army in the field, and making it possible to continue the war.
The rebellion has now such a strong hold in the eastern part of the island that it is necessary to provide laws for the welfare of those who are living under the flag of free Cuba, which, as we have told you before, now floats over Santiago de Cuba.
The Government has already established factories and workshops to furnish supplies for the army, and about five thousand persons are employed in them.
There are tanneries where the skins of beasts are made into leather; shoe, saddle, harness, gunpowder, and dynamite factories, and workshops for repairing arms and reloading gun-cartridges.
A newspaper man who says he has been through these establishments states that while they are somewhat old-fashioned in their methods, owing to the impossibility of obtaining the newest machinery, the work they turn out is excellent.