sh sympathizers to betake
themselves to the cities and towns occupied by Spanish garrisons. This was
inconvenient for its victims, but its purpose was humane. Gomez also sought
to concentrate the Cubans, particularly the women and children, in the
recesses of the hills where they would be less exposed to danger than they
would be in their homes. This also was a humane purpose.

Weyler's application of this policy was utterly brutal. The people of the
country were herded in prison camps, in settlements surrounded by stockades
or trenches beyond which they might not pass. No provision was made for
their food or maintenance. The victims were non-combatants, women, and
children. In his message of December, 1897, President McKinley said of
this system, as applied by Weyler, "It was not civilized warfare; it was
extermination. The only peace it could beget was that of the wilderness
and the grave." In my experience as a campaign correspondent in several
conflicts, I have necessarily seen more or less of gruesome sights,
the result of disease and wounds, but I have seen nothing in any way
comparable, in horror and pitifulness, to the victims of this abominable
system. To describe their condition in detail would be little short of
offensive, those groups of hopeless, helpless sufferers who lingered only
until death came and kindly put them out of their misery and pain. But by
this time, two forces had come into active operation, dire alarm in Spain
and wrath and indignation in the United States. Weyler had failed as
Martinez Campos, when leaving the island, predicted. He was recalled, and
was succeeded, on October 31, 1897, by General Blanco. The new incumbent
tried conciliation, but it failed. The work had gone too far. The party in
the field had become the dominant party, not to be suppressed either by
force of arms or by promises of political and economic reform. At last,
Spain yielded. Outside pressure on Madrid, chiefly from the United States,
prevailed. A scheme for Cuban autonomy was devised and, on January 1,
1898, was put into effect. But it came too late. It was welcomed by many
non-participants in the war, and a form of government was organized under
it. But the party then dominant, the army in the field, distrusted the
arrangement and would have none of it. All overtures were rejected and
the struggle continued. On February 15, 1898, came the disaster to the
battleship _Maine_, in the harbor of Havana. On April 11th,