d armed and mounted Liberals, who were to start a revolution
against President Palma; but did not fulfill his promise. The men who
had been convicted were permitted to remain in jail until, as is too
often the custom in some Latin American countries, they were freed by a
general amnesty bill which had been forced through Congress by the
Liberal party. The tendency to revolt against the Palma government
apparently subsided with the arrest of these first disturbers, but,
during the following January, 1906, reports of trouble in the extreme
western portion of the island came to the notice of the officials. The
leader was Pino Guerra, who, through his popularity as an accordion
player at country dances, had secured election to the House of
Representatives; and who with his taste for games of chance, at which he
was generally unlucky, had got into debt to the amount of $7,000. His
creditors in these debts were persistent, and this fact was given by him
in a letter to General Fernando Freyre de Andrade, President of the
House of Representatives, as an excuse for the revolution which he
started. Pino Guerra indeed intimated that if someone would extend to
him a little personal loan of $7,000 he would refrain from causing any
trouble to the government. General Freyre de Andrade, being a politician
who believed in compromise and that even a poor end would justify the
means, suggested to Guerra that he knew of $3,000 that had been
appropriated for some purpose and not used, which might possibly be
turned over, if his creditors would take it on account. "General"
Guerra, as he called himself, consulted with his creditors, and they
concluded to accept the offer, if they could get the cash. So the embryo
revolutionist was conducted to the presence of the President, where the
whole matter was explained by General Freyre de Andrade. To their
surprise, President Palma promptly refused to have any of the treasury
funds used to buy--or to pay blackmail to--a revolutionist. So "General"
Guerra retired to nurse his resentment and to plan mischief; until some
six weeks later when he started the uprising that was locally known as
"Mr. Taft's picnic," because the leaders asserted that the capturing of
the Palma government would be nothing more than a picnic, and assured
Mr. Taft on his arrival to straighten out affairs that they really had
not intended to assassinate President Palma, although three or four
distinct plots had been made for that