t of May, 1870, he was
slain in a battle in which his small army was completely destroyed.
Paraguay, after a valorous and gigantic struggle, was at the mercy of the
allies. It was restored to national life again, but under penalty of the
great indemnity, for so small a state, of two hundred and thirty-six
million pesos.

TACON THE GOVERNOR AND MARTI THE SMUGGLER.

In 1834 Don Miguel Tacon, one of the most vigorous and tyrannical of the
governor-generals of Cuba, took control of the island, which he ruled with
a stern will and an iron hand. One of the purposes in which he was most
earnest was that of suppressing the active smuggling on the coast, all the
naval vessels under his command being ordered to patrol the coast night
and day, and to have no mercy on these lawless worthies. As it proved, all
his efforts were of no avail, the smugglers continuing to ply their trade
in spite of Tacon and his agents.

The despoilers of the revenue were too daring and adroit, and too familiar
with the shoals and rocks of the coast waters, to be readily caught, and
the lack of pilots familiar with this difficult navigation prevented any
close approach to their haunts. In this dilemma Tacon tried the expedient
of offering a large and tempting reward to any one who would desert the
fraternity and agree to pilot the government vessels through the perilous
channels which they frequented. Double this reward, an almost princely
prize, was offered for the person of one Marti, dead or alive.

Tacon had good reason to offer a special reward for the arrest of Marti,
who was looked upon as the leader and chief offender of the smugglers. A
daring and reckless man, notorious as a smuggler and half pirate, his name
was as well known in Cuba as that of the governor-general himself. The
admirers of his daring exploits grew to know him as the King of the Isle
of Pines, this island being his principal rendezvous, from which he sent
his fleet of small, swift vessels to ply their trade on the neighboring
coast. As for Tacon's rewards, they were long as ineffective as his
revenue cutters and gunboats, and the government officials fell at length
into a state of despair as to how they should deal with the nefarious and
defiant band.

One dark, dull night, several months after the placards offering these
rewards had been posted in conspicuous places in Havana and elsewhere, two
sentinels were pacing as usual before the governor's palace, which s