A provisional government was formed with Serrano as President, and a new constitution was formed, by which an hereditary king was to rule, in conjunction with a senate and a popular chamber.  The throne was offered to Amadeus of Aosta, the second son of Victor Emmanuel, in 1870, and he made an honest effort to discharge the difficult duties of the office.  But he found the task too hard, and too distasteful, and resigned in 1873.  A provisional republic was then formed, of which Castelar was the guiding spirit.  But the Spaniards, trained to regard monarchy with superstitious reverence, had no sympathy with republican institutions.  Don Carlos seized the opportunity to revive the claim of inalienable male succession, and raised the standard of revolt.  Castelar finally threw up the office in disgust, and the administration was undertaken by a committee of officers.  Anarchy was suppressed with a strong hand, but it was obvious that order could only be restored by reviving the monarchy.  Foreign princes were no longer thought of, and Alfonso XII., the young son of the exiled Isabella, was restored to the throne in 1874.  His first task was to terminate the Carlist war, which still continued in the North, and this was successfully accomplished in 1876.  He died in 1885, and the regency was entrusted to his widow, Christina of Austria.  On May 17th, 1886, a posthumous son was born, who is now the titular King of Spain.

CHAPTER IV.

Buccaneering and the warfare in the Spanish main.

Spain’s Stolen Treasures from Mexico and Peru Tempt Her European Rivals—­The Spanish Main the Scene of Piratical Plundering for Many Years—­Havana and Other Cities Threatened—­Great Britain Takes Santo Domingo—­American Troops from the British Colonies Capture Havana—­Victory on Land and Sea Is Saddened by Many Deaths of Brave Americans from Fever—­Lessons of the First Capture of Havana.

After the acquisition of rich and populous countries in the western hemisphere had begun, Spain discovered that her new-found wealth was not to be hers without a struggle.  From the harbors of Mexico and Peru, Spanish galleons sailed with their loads of treasure, stolen from the Montezumas and the Incas.  Year after year, rich argosies, laden with gold and silver to replenish the extravagant treasury of the Spanish crown, crossed the seas.  The Atlantic ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea were furrowed with the keels of Spanish fleets, at a time when the European nations scarcely maintained the pretense of friendship with one another.