ecuted at the age of fifty-two.

The Lopez expedition would seem to have been the most serious and best
organized attempt at revolution in Cuba by invasion, though there have
been formidable attempts since. From 1868 to 1876 Cuba may be said to
have been in a state of chronic civil war. This outbreak was led by
Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, an able lawyer and wealthy planter of
Bayamo, in the eastern department of the island. He raised the
standard of independence on his estate, Demajagua, supported at the
outset by less than fifty men. This was in October, 1868, and by the
middle of November he had an organized army of twelve thousand men;
poorly armed, it must be admitted, but united in purpose and of
determined will. That portion of the island contiguous to Santiago,
and between that city and Cienfuegos, was for a long period almost
entirely in possession of the patriot forces. Here many sanguinary
battles were fought with varying fortune, at terrible sacrifice of
life, especially on the part of the government troops, over one
hundred thousand of whom, first and last, are known to have perished
in that district. Spain actually sent one hundred and forty-five
thousand enlisted men to Cuba during the eight years of active
warfare. Of this number those who finally returned to the European
peninsula were but a few hundreds! It was publicly stated in the
Cortes of Madrid that not enough of that immense force ever returned
to fill a single regiment! The climate was far more fatal to these
soldiers than were patriot bullets. The warfare was conducted by the
native Cubans mostly on the guerrilla plan, and was ten times more
destructive to the imported soldiers than to themselves. Discipline
counted for little or nothing in contending with men who fought
single-handed and from ambush, decimating the ranks of an invading
column, who in turn could only fire at random.

Exhaustion and promised concessions, which were, as usual with the
Spanish government, never fulfilled, finally brought this struggle to
an end; but it cost Spain many millions of dollars and the lives of
over a hundred and fifty thousand men, saying nothing of the
destruction of an enormous amount of property on the island, belonging
to loyal Spaniards. Miles upon miles of thrifty plantations, with all
their buildings and machinery, were laid waste, and remain so to this
day.

Since 1876 there have been roving bands of insurgents in existence,
causing the autho