But while these preparations were going on for the conflict which was destined to cost Spain her possessions in the western world, there were a few individuals who were still making desperate efforts to induce the administration at Washington to effect a compromise at any cost.  Not even the actual declaration of war, and the call for volunteers, could bring the members of this peace-at-any-price party to a realization of the fact that patience has ceased to be a virtue, that we could no longer turn a deaf ear to the appeals of an oppressed people, and that the brave men who went down with the Maine must be avenged.

Every true American felt that the hour had come when we must defend the honor of our great nation, and it was evident to all that the time was near at hand when actual warfare was to begin both on land and sea.

The insurgents in Cuba, who have been struggling against almost overwhelming odds for so many months, received the glad tidings of American intervention with unbounded joy, and at once sent representatives to the United States to arrange for co-operation in the invasion of Cuba, and to assist in planning a systematic campaign against the Spanish forces.  Every arrangement was completed for final action and with men and money, munitions of war and ships, all in ample supply, it was evident that the crucial test was soon to come, and that war was at last an actual fact.

CHAPTER II.

How Columbus found the “Pearl of the Antilles.”

In gratitude of Spain to the Great Discoverer Who Gave Her a New World—­How Spain’s Evil Colonial Policy Lost the Western Hemisphere to That Obsolete Nation—­Early Settlement of Cuba—­ Character of the Natives at the Time of the Discovery—­Founding of the First Cities—­Havana Becomes the Island Capital—­Docility of the Natives and Their Extermination by Spanish Oppressors.

Cuba and Columbus are names inseparably connected.  This largest and most fruitful island of the Spanish Main was discovered by the great navigator himself on the 28th day of October, 1492, only a short time after his first landing upon the soil of the western hemisphere on the island of San Salvador.  There is a sentimental association to Americans in the thought that the discovery of our own continent was due to the pioneer expeditions sent from Spain.  But any regret in one’s mind that animosities have risen between the two nations, may be mollified by the memory that Columbus was himself an Italian, that it had required years of his efforts to induce sufficient interest on the part of Spanish monarchs to father his undertaking, and that his life in the service of Spain was marred by the basest ingratitude on the part of those whom he had served.

Upon the handsome monument erected to the memory of Columbus in Seville by Ferdinand and Isabella, is the simple inscription, “A Castile y Leon, nuevo mundo dio Colon”—­“to Castile and Leon, Columbus gave a new world.”