"Know ye that I have pardoned those who have fought against us, armed; know ye that your wives, mothers and sisters have in me found the protection they admired and which you rejected; know, also, that many of the pardoned have turned against me. After all these excesses, after so much ingratitude and so much villainy, it is impossible for me to be the man I was heretofore. Deceptive neutrality is no longer possible. 'He that is not with me is against me,' and in order that my soldiers may know how to distinguish you, hearken to the orders given them:
"Every man from the age of 15 upward, found beyond his farm, will be shot, unless a justification for his absence be proven.
"Every hut that is found uninhabited will be burned by the troops.
"Every hamlet where a white cloth in the shape of a flag is not hoisted in token that its inhabitants desire peace, will be reduced to ashes.
"The women who are not found in their respective dwellings, or in those of their relatives, will return to the towns of Jiguani or Bayamo, where they will be duly provided for. Those who fail to do so will be taken by compulsion. These orders will be in force on and after the 14th inst.!
"Count Valmaseda.
"Bayamo, April 4, 1869."
General Cespedes about this time sent to the Government of the United States, in his name and in that of the Provisional Government of Cuba, a request for recognition, as belligerents. His letter contained these references to the strength of the movement in Cuba:
"We now hold much more than fifty leagues of the interior of this Island in the Eastern Department, among which are the people (or communities) of Jiguani, Tunas, Baire, Yara, Barrancas, Datil, Cauto, Embarcadero, Guisa, and Horno, besides the cities of Bayamo and Holguin, in all numbering 107,853 inhabitants, who obey us, and have sworn to shed to the last drop of blood in our cause.
"In the mentioned city of Bayamo, we have established a provisional government, and formed our general quarters, where we hold more than three hundred of the enemy prisoners, taken from the Spanish Army, among whom are generals and governors of high rank. All this has been accomplished in ten days, without other resources than those offered by the country we have passed through, without other losses than three or four killed and six or eight wounded."