l who take orders from you, I
will make a landing within plain sight of Havana on my next trip to Cuba.
I may even land an expedition inside of the harbor and take you away a
prisoner. If we should capture you, which is much more likely than that you
will ever capture me, I will have you chopped up into small pieces and fed
to the fires of the _Dauntless_." A few months later, this little Irishman,
whom Weyler denounced as a "bloodthirsty, dare-devil," and who may have
been a dare-devil but was not bloodthirsty, actually carried out a part of
this seemingly reckless threat. He landed a cargo within a mile and a half
of Morro Castle.

By this time, vessels of the United States navy were employed,
supplementing the work of the Revenue Service. This, of course, added both
difficulty and danger to the work. In March and April, several expeditions
were interrupted. For the Spanish blockade of the Cuban coast, there was
only contempt. Captain O'Brien told a naval officer that if the navy and
the revenue cutters would let him alone he would "advertise the time and
place of departure, carry excursions on every trip, and guarantee that
every expedition would be landed on time." In May, 1897, two carloads of
arms and ammunition were shipped from New York to Jacksonville, but, by
the authority of Mr. Fritot, they were quietly dropped from the train at
a junction point, and sent to Wilmington, N.C. Their contents were
transferred to the tug _Alexander Jones_, and that boat proceeded
nonchalantly down the river. Soon afterward, an old schooner, the _John
D. Long_, loaded with coal, followed the tug. Two revenue cutters were on
hand, but there was nothing in the movements of these vessels to excite
their interest. Off shore, the tug attached a towline to the schooner that
was carrying its coal supply, its own bunkers being crammed with guns and
cartridges. Off Palm Beach, General Nunez and some sixty Cubans were taken
from a fishing boat, according to a prearranged plan. Two days later, at an
agreed upon place, they were joined by the _Dauntless_ which had slipped
out of Jacksonville. The excursion was then complete. About half the cargo
of the _Jones_ was transferred to the _Dauntless_ and was landed, May 21, a
few miles east of Nuevitas. A second trip took the remainder of the cargo
of the _Jones_ and most of the Cuban passengers, and landed the lot under
the very guns, such as they were, of Morro Castle, and within about three
mile