ion with the capital, save
by sea. Troops have again been dispatched to the interior, but their
efforts have proved ineffectual. Upon their appearance, the rebels
vanish into the woods and thickets, and there exhaust the patience and
the energy of the military.

The sub-editor notes everything down, taking care to eschew that which
is likely to prove offensive to the sensitive ears of the authorities.
The material is then given out for printing purposes; for his worship
the censor will read nothing until it has been previously set up in
type. As many hours will elapse before the proof sheets are returned
with censorial corrections, Don Javier proposes a saunter through the
town.

On the way, Don Javier entertains me with an account of the revolution.

'The first grito de independencia,' says he, 'took place on October the
tenth (1868), at La Demajagua--an ingenio, or sugar estate, belonging to
Don Carlos Manuel Cespedes, a wealthy Cuban planter and a distinguished
advocate. One hundred and forty-seven men, armed with forty-five
fowling-pieces, four rifles and a few pistols and machetes, constituted
the rebellious band which, under Senor Cespedes' leadership, had
ventured to raise the standard of independence. Two days after, their
numbers were increased to 4,000.

'When our governor was first told that a party of Cubans had risen in
open revolt, not many leagues from our town, he publicly proclaimed that
the rebellious band consisted of a small crowd of "descamisados," or
ragged vagrants, and runaway negroes, whom a dozen policemen could
easily disperse. In spite of this pretended indifference, he
nevertheless thought fit to communicate with the Captain-General of
Havana. That mighty functionary thought more seriously of the outbreak;
he was perfectly aware of the heavy taxes which had been imposed upon
the inhabitants of our island; of the state of ruin into which many of
our leading planters had been thrown by these taxes; and conscious also
of the oppression and despotism which had been exercised over our colony
during the reign of the lately dethroned Queen of Spain, he doubtless
calculated that the revolutionary mania inaugurated in the Mother
Country would naturally be imitated in the Loyal and Ever-faithful Isle.
But whatever may have been his speculations, certain it is that as soon
as he heard of the rebellious movement, he telegraphed to our governor,
commanding him to dispatch to the scene of the outbreak