Spain, of course, denied these charges, and asserted that the agreement had been kept in good faith.  The Spanish Government may have been technically correct in its claim that all laws necessary to the fulfillment of its promises had been enacted.  But it seems entirely certain that they had not been made effective.  The conditions of the Cubans were in no way improved and, some time before the outbreak, they began preparations for armed resistance.  In Cuba and the Intervention (published in 1905) I have already written an outline review of the experience of the revolution, and I shall here make use of extracts from that volume.  The notable leader and instigator of the movement was Jose Marti, a patriot, a poet, and a dreamer, but a man of action.  He visited General Maximo Gomez at his home in Santo Domingo, where that doughty old warrior had betaken himself after the conclusion of the Ten Years’ War.  Gomez accepted the command of the proposed army of Cuban liberation.  Antonio Maceo also accepted a command.  He was a mulatto, an able and daring fighter, whose motives were perhaps a compound of patriotism, hatred of Spain, and a love for the excitement of warfare.  Others whose names are written large in Cuba’s history soon joined the movement.  A junta, or committee, was organized with headquarters in New York.  After the death of Marti, this was placed in charge of Tomas Estrada y Palma, who afterward became the first President of the new Republic.  Its work was to raise funds, obtain and forward supplies and ammunition, and to advance the cause in all possible ways.  There were legal battles to be fought by and through this organization, and Mr. Horatio S. Rubens, a New York lawyer, was placed in charge of that department.  The twenty-fourth of February was set for the beginning of activities, but arms were lacking, and while the movement was actually begun on that day, the operations of the first six weeks or so were limited to numerous local uprisings of little moment.  But the local authorities became alarmed, and martial law was proclaimed in Santa Clara and Matanzas provinces on the 27th.  Spain became alarmed also, and immediately despatched General Martinez Campos as Governor-General of the island, to succeed General Calleja.  He assumed command on April 16.  Maceo and his associates, among them his brother Jose, also a fighter of note, landed from Costa Rica on April 1.  Marti, Gomez, and others, reached the island on the 11th.  Meanwhile, Bartolome Maso, an influential planter in Oriente, had been in command of the forces in his vicinity.  Many joined, and others stood ready to join as soon as they could be equipped.  Engagements with the Spanish troops soon became a matter of daily occurrence, and Martinez Campos realized that a formidable movement was on.  Spain hurried thousands of soldiers to the island.