He rose rapidly in rank, and during the first Cuban revolt he was in command in the province of Santiago, where he earned the title that has since made him famous in the eyes of his supporters, but infamous from a civilized point of view.  But he put down the revolt.  He was rewarded with the appointment of captain general of the Canary islands.  His administration was so successful that he was created Marquis of Teneriffe.  He was then barely thirty-nine years old.  He distinguished himself in the Carlist war and at its conclusion he was made captain general of the Philippines, where he quelled an insurrection and admittedly gave the islands the best administration they had ever known.  He returned to Spain in 1889 and was in command at Barcelona until the present Cuban revolution began.

Here is a mental photograph of him by a newspaper correspondent: 

“Most men resemble their reputations, and if a life famously spent is in the mind of one who visits a character of world-wide repute, he quite naturally discovers peculiarities, of facial expression and physique which appear to account for the individuality of the man, fighter, philosopher, criminal, reformer or whatever he may be.

“All this is true of General Weyler.  He is one of those men who create a first impression, the first sight of whom can never be effaced from the mind, by whose presence the most careless observer is impressed instantly, and yet, taken, altogether, he is a man in whom the elements of greatness are concealed under a cloak of impenetrable obscurity.  Inferior physically, unsoldierly in bearing, exhibiting no trace of refined sensibilities nor pleasure in the gentle associations that others live for, or at least seek as diversions, he is nevertheless the embodiment of mental acuteness, crafty, unscrupulous, fearless and of indomitable perseverance.

“I have talked with Campos, Marin and Weyler, the three Captain-Generals to whom Spain has intrusted (thus far unsuccessfully) the reconquest of Cuba.  Reconquest seems an ill-chosen word, but one of General Weyler’s staff has so denominated this war, and Cuban revolutions can be settled only by conquests, Campos was an exceptional man.  Marin was commonplace.  Weyler is unique.  Campos and Marin affected gold lace, dignity and self-consciousness.  Weyler ignores them all as useless, unnecessary impediments, if anything, to the one object of his existence.  Campos was fat, good natured, wise, philosophical, slow in his mental processes, clear in his judgment, emphatic in his opinions, outspoken, and, withal, lovable, humane, conservative, constructive, progressive, with but one project ever before him, the glorification of Spain as a mother-land and a figure among peaceful, enlightened nations.

“Weyler is lean, diminutive, shriveled, ambitious for immortality, irrespective of its odor, a master of diplomacy, the slave of Spain, for the glory of sitting at the right of her throne, unlovable, unloving, exalted, and doubtless justly, in self-esteem, because he is unmistaken in his estimation of his value to his Queen.  His passion is success, per se, foul or fair consequences or the conventional ideas of humanity notwithstanding.