The General then sought out Mr. Barroeta and asked him to abuse the Marquis in his newspaper.

This Mr. Barroeta refused to do.  For one reason the Marquis was a friend of his, and for another, he knew that the facts laid before the Government by Apezteguia were strictly true.

When General Weyler found that he could not make Mr. Barroeta do as he wished, he began to persecute him, and at last made a charge against him of stealing public money, and ordered his arrest.

Mr. Barroeta’s friends warned him of his danger, and he was able to escape, and keep in hiding until he could get passage on an American ship.

Once safely in this country, he set about writing a full account of the doings of General Weyler.  This he is publishing, and as soon as it is quite ready he will set out for Spain to lay the matter before the Queen Regent.

He declares that General Weyler is indeed a monster of cruelty, and that the descriptions which have reached us are absolutely correct.  He asserts that General Weyler has no loyalty or love of his country, that his one aim is to make money for himself, and to do this he will cheat his Government, and commit any crimes and cruelties that are necessary to cover up his wrong-doings.

Mr. Barroeta has letters and documents to prove his accusations against General Weyler, and a full account of the way the war news is manufactured in Cuba under the General’s directions.

According to his statements Weyler has a friend in the Spanish Cortes, who cables him when the Government is getting angry at his want of success, and advises him to send news of a big battle.  Weyler then sends out a few men to seize a Cuban hospital, or murder a defenceless family of peasants, and as soon as the work is done, cables the news of his great victory to Spain.

Mr. Barroeta says that Cuba is lost to Spain if General Weyler is not recalled.  He declares that the revolution is now stronger than ever, that none of the provinces are pacified as Weyler says they are, and that the only place where there is any semblance of peace is Santiago de Cuba, and that only because it is under the rule of the Cubans, and is in fact Free Cuba.

* * * * *

Mr. Calhoun has returned from his mission in Cuba, but we must wait a few days before we can expect to hear the results.

A report, however, comes from Havana, that one hundred citizens of Matanzas have sent an appeal for help to our Government, and have based it on the misery which they say Mr. Calhoun and General Lee saw with their own eyes.

They speak in a most pitiable way of the hunger and privations suffered by the people who have been driven into the towns; from the description given in the paper, these poor souls are now so thin and weak that they can hardly drag themselves through the streets to beg for bread.  They tell of poor little children dying of starvation in the streets, of the sufferings of the poor parents who cannot get food to keep life in their little ones’ bodies, and of this crowd of suffering, starving people, wandering homeless through the streets begging for the charity which no one can spare them.