med forces of Spain." His version of the reason
for his imprisonment is as follows: His cousin and a lieutenant in the
guardia civile were very close friends, and the said cousin, wishing
to present a cow to the lieutenant, applied to the prisoner for one,
which was given to him. Later on the cousin thought he would like to
present his friend with another cow, so applied to the prisoner for
cow No. 2, and was this time refused. In order to take vengeance on the
prisoner, the cousin denounced him to the civil guard lieutenant as a
"bandit," and he was arrested and imprisoned as above. The prisoner
was sixty years of age.

_Anastacio de Mesa_.

The story of this prisoner seems to be particularly sad. He was
a chorister or sacristan in a Roman Catholic church, with several
others, and was arrested, with his companions, by the civil guard,
charged with "sacrilege." The truth of the matter, however, seems to
be as follows: The prisoner had a sweetheart with whom a lieutenant of
the civil guard, named de Vega, appears to have been infatuated. After
imprisoning Anastacio de Mesa and his companions upon the above charge,
which seems to be without foundation entirely, de Vega took the girl,
and compelled her by force and against her will to live with him as
his mistress. The girl soon died, her end, no doubt, being hastened
by the brutal cruelty of de Vega. These young men, hardly more than
boys, were imprisoned on August 3, 1895, after having been tried by
court martial, but not sentenced. They have now been liberated. It
should be stated that de Vega himself constituted the "court martial"
before which these boys were tried.

Note.--There are several cases of arrests for "insulting and resisting
the armed forces of Spain." In the case of Pedro Javier, the accused
was over seventy years old, and in that of Miguel de la Cruz, he was
seventy-five years old; while in one or two other cases boys of ten
or twelve years of age were arrested on the same charge.

CHAPTER XX

Hawaii As Annexed.

The Star Spangled Banner Up Again in Hawaii, and to Stay--Dimensions
of the Islands--What the Missionaries Have Done--Religious Belief
by Nationality--Trade Statistics--Latest Census--Sugar Plantation
Laborers--Coinage of Silver--Schools--Coffee Growing.

The star spangled banner should have been waving in peaceful triumph
over our central possessions in the Pacific for five years. Now Old
Glory has ascended the famous flag-