While the cargo was being unloaded the Osceola, an auxiliary gunboat, with her guns ready for action, scouted about the vicinity looking for an enemy.  But the Spaniards apparently had no suspicion of what was taking place.  So easily was the dangerous mission accomplished that while some members of the party were getting the supplies ashore others were providing themselves with fruit, sugar and other products of the landing place, a large stock of which was brought back for Key West friends.

The moment the work was concluded the Florida and the Osceola slipped away, leaving the insurgents to convey their re-enforcements into the interior, which was done without any casualty.

The returning members of the Florida party brought with them several hundred private letters, which give a complete insight into the conditions prevailing in the blockaded island.

CHAPTER XIX.

Another stroke for freedom.

The Beginning of the Revolt—­Martial Law Declared in Santiago and Matanzas—­Arrival of Campos—­The Blacks as Soldiers—­No Caste Prejudices—­General Santocildes Killed—­A Story of Maceo—­Campos’ Campaign Fails—­He Returns to Spain.

It was the intention of the insurgents to begin operations in the six provinces on the same date, but at the appointed time three of them failed to carry out the plan, and in only one was the aspect at all threatening.  In Havana and Matanzas the Spanish officials had no difficulty in suppressing the insurrectionists, and the leader in the former province, the editor of a newspaper, accepted a pardon and returned to his work.

In Santiago, however, which is thinly settled, the movement gained ground steadily.  The landing of a party of revolutionists from San Domingo aroused the patriots, and were welcomed warmly, being supplied with re-enforcements wherever they appeared.  The government professed to be merely annoyed, nothing more, and pretended to look upon the patriots as mere brigands.  Calleja became alarmed at last when the determination of the insurgents became known, and proclaimed martial law in Santiago and Matanzas, and sent forces to both provinces.  He could put only nine thousand men in the field, however, and had only seven gunboats for coast duty at his command.  The commissary arrangements were miserable, and frequently caused the interruption of important movements.  The insurgents were most ubiquitous, and would appear here and there without the slightest warning, making raids on plantations, which they plundered, and from which they enticed away the laborers, disappearing in the swamps, where pursuit was impossible, and appearing again in a day or so in some unexpected spot, and repeating the same maneuvers.  In this manner they terrorized the loyalists, and ruined their prospects of raising a crop, and as many depended solely upon the soil for their living this method of warfare struck them a vital blow.