ubjects, and payment was soon after made "for the purpose of
relief of the families or persons of the ship's company and passengers." In
his _Cuba and International Relations_, Mr. Callahan says: "The catalogue
of irritating affairs in relation to Cuba, of which the _Virginius_ was
only the culmination, might have been urged as sufficient to justify a
policy of intervention to stop the stubborn war of extermination which had
been tolerated by peaceful neighbors for five years. Some would have been
ready to advocate intervention as a duty. The relations of Cuba to the
United States, the Spanish commercial restrictions which placed Cuba at
the mercy of Spanish monopolists, and the character of the Spanish rule,
pointed to the conclusion that if Spain should not voluntarily grant
reforms and guarantee pacification of the island, the United States might
be compelled, especially for future security, temporarily to occupy it and
assist in the organization of a liberal government based upon modern views.
Such action might have led to annexation, but not necessarily; it might
have led to a restoration of Spanish possession under restrictions as to
the character of Spanish rule, and as to the size of the Spanish army and
naval force in the vicinity; more likely it would have resulted in the
independence of Cuba under American protection."

These are only some of the more prominent features in fifty years of
American interest in Cuba. Throughout the entire period, the sympathies
of the American people were strongly pro-Cuban. Money and supplies were
contributed from time to time to assist the Cubans in their efforts to
effect a change in their conditions, either through modification of Spanish
laws, or by the road of independence. Only a minority of the Cubans sought
to follow that road at that time. The movement for independence was not
national until it was made so in 1895. What would have happened had we,
at the time of the Ten Years' War, granted to the Cubans the rights of
belligerents, is altogether a matter of speculation. Such a course was then
deemed politically inexpedient.

IX

_CUBA'S REVOLUTIONS_

Only by magnifying protests into revolts, and riots into revolutions, is it
possible to show Cuba as the "land of revolutions" that many have declared
it to be. The truth is that from the settlement of the island in 1512 until
the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1898, there were only two experiences
that can, b