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Early Incidents of the Present War: Gomez

That Ibarra band, the first one in the present war, numbered about thirty men, one of them being Juan Gualberto Gomez, colored, the well-known editor of the popular Havana daily, La Lucha. The chief of the party, however, was Antonio Lopez Coloma, a young man who was in charge of the Ignacia plantation and had organized the band. On his leaving for the neighboring fields, another young man, Armando Gonzalez, tried to detain him by force; but Coloma killed him on the spot. Four days afterwards the party were encamped in the woods near the Ignacia sugar mill; when a few cavalrymen and a small guerilla band made a sudden attack upon the rebels; some of them succeeded in escaping, Gomez among them; but others were made prisoners.

A romantic incident is deserving of mention here. Lopez Coloma and Senorita Amparo Orbe had been engaged for some time, and when he determined to take to the field, she ran away from home to follow him and share his fate. So it happened that she was a prisoner with her lover in the San Severino Castle of Matanzas; but was released a few days later, while Coloma had to remain in the fortress. He was subsequently taken to the Moro Castle of Havana, and the young woman having moved to the capital, their marriage took place in that prison.

Editor Gomez had escaped unhurt; but after having ascertained what had happened to Lopez Coloma and most of his companions, decided to surrender to the authorities, which he did, as did likewise the rest of the members of the Ibarra band, who were scattered about the country. He was brought before General Calleja, in Havana, who pardoned him at once, in accordance with said Article 3 of his proclamation; but while Gomez was still in the governor's palace, the chief-of-police arrived there with an order from the court to arrest him on a charge that he was implicated with two Spaniards, Agapito Anitua and Eladio Larranaga, in the introduction of a lot of firearms and cartridges, of military pattern. The Cuban and the two Spaniards were tried and found guilty. Gomez and Anitua were given twenty year sentences, and Larranaga twelve of hard labor in Ceuta, the Spanish fortress on the African coast, opposite Gibraltar.