sult was a complete rout. This was the work of about two
hundred muskets; for many of Lopez's men had thrown away their arms on
the long and toilsome march.

The expedition, however, was too weak to profit by their desperate
successes, and had no means of following up these victories. Plunging
into the mountains, they wandered about for days, drenched with rain,
destitute of food or proper clothing, until despair at last seized
them. They separated from each other, a few steadfast comrades remaining
by their leader. In the neighborhood of San Cristoval, Lopez finally
surrendered to a party of pursuers. He was treated with every indignity
by his captors, though he submitted to everything with courage and
serenity. He was taken in a steamer from Mariel to Havana.

Arrived here, he earnestly desired to obtain an interview with Concha,
who had been an old companion-in-arms with him in Spain; not that he
expected pardon at his hands, but hoping to obtain a change in the
manner of his death. His soul shrank from the infamous _garrotte_, and
he aspired to the indulgence of the _cuatro tiros_ (four shots). Both
the interview and the indulgence were refused, and he was executed on
the first of September, at seven o'clock in the morning, in the Punta,
by that mode of punishment which the Spaniards esteem the most infamous
of all. When he landed at Bahia Honda, he stooped and kissed the earth,
with the fond salutation, "_Querida Cuba_" (dear Cuba)! and his last
words, pronounced in a tone of deep tenderness, were, "_Muero por mi
amada Cuba_" (I die for my beloved Cuba).[10]

The remainder of the prisoners who fell into the hands of the
authorities were sent to the Moorish fortress of Ceuta; but Spain seems
to have been ashamed of the massacre of Atares, and has atoned for the
ferocity of her colonial officials by leniency towards the misguided men
of the expedition, granting them a pardon.

At present it may be said that "order reigns in Warsaw," and the island
is comparatively quiet in the presence of a vast armed force. To Concha
have succeeded Canedo and Pezuelas, but no change for the better has
taken place in the administration of the island. Rigorous to the native
population, insolent and overbearing to foreigners, respecting no flag
and regarding no law, the captains-general bear themselves as though
Spain was still a first-rate power as of yore, terrible on land, and
afloat still the mistress of the sea.

FOOTNOTES: