as to send some bread to visitors at the Mejorana plantation.  The boy delivered the note and the Spanish commander asked who sent him.  Without a moment’s hesitation he replied:  “General Maceo.”  The Spanish official laughed and replied:  “Very well, a supply of bread will be sent.  It will not be necessary for Maceo to come after it.”  What is more remarkable is the fact that Maceo told the correspondent beforehand that the bread would be sent, as the Spaniards had been so frightened by Bandera on the previous day that they did not want to invite another attack.  That very evening the boy returned, conveying many bags of bread.  The Spaniards remained within the town until Maceo had rested his army and departed for Jarahuica.

Campos’ campaign fails.

Before the end of the year Campos’ campaign was admitted to be a failure.  He could not depart from his humane policy, however, and at the beginning of the year 1896 he returned to Spain.  The rabid Spaniards of Havana, having compelled Campos to tender his resignation, demanded from Canovas a captain-general framed in the old iron cast of the Spanish conquerors, not to fight battles and risk his life in the field, but to exterminate the native population.  In their belief, women, children, everyone born in Cuba, should be held responsible for the situation.  They did not like a soldier with a gallant career and personal courage.  They wanted an executioner.  Canovas satisfied them and appointed Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau to succeed Martinez Campos.

The question may be asked why the insurgents after so many victories did not invest the city of Havana, and end therewith the Spanish dominion.  The answer is very clear.  After the battle of Coliseo General Gomez reviewed his troops and found that each soldier had only three cartridges.  The Cubans in the United States were making vain efforts to send a big expedition to the insurgents, but the policy of our government was non-interference, and they were checked in their plans.  At Guira de Helena, on January 4, 1896, the Cubans had to fight with their machetes to enter the Province of Havana.

If history does not afford a parallel of the stern resolution displayed by the Cubans to die or to win in a struggle with all the odds against them, neither does it present a case of stubborn resistance to justice and human rights, and of barbarous cruelty, which equals the record of Spain in Cuba.

CHAPTER XX.

Jose MAETI and other Cuban heroes.

A Cuban Patriot—­A Life Devoted to the Cause—­First Work for Cuba—­Banished From His Native Land—­He Returns to Fight for Freedom—­His Death—­Maximo Gomez, General-in-Chief of the Cuban Forces—­His Methods of Warfare—­Antonio Maceo, the Colored Commander—­Other Military Men of Note in the Cuban Army.