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Latest News from the Seat of War: Bermuda

The Spaniards with their slow ships are avoided at sea as their slow columns are evaded on land. The Bermuda is faster than the Spanish cruisers, and if she has succeeded, as often reported, in throwing into the insurgents' hands machine guns, with abundant ammunition and expert American gunners, the rebels will become aggressive.

The Spanish official reports unconsciously pay the tribute to the rebels that they did not permit to the Havana newspapers, or to pass over the direct line of wire--this account of the Bermuda in her latest expedition, which, however, receives full confirmation: "The Bermuda landed two Gatling guns, 1,000 rifles, most of them Mausers, 500,000 rounds of ammunition, and 1,000 pounds of dynamite. It is Vidal's intention to report at General Maceo's headquarters immediately. The ammunition is for Maceo's army, and, at his request, the cartridges are designed for the Mauser rifles, with which the insurgents in Pinar del Rio are now very well supplied. On account of their superior penetrating power, it is Maceo's intention to use them against the numberless small forts which General Weyler has established along his military trocha between Mariel and Majana. There is threatened a case closely resembling that of the Lopez and Virginius captures and executions of citizens, and arising from the same line of indiscretion or policy on the part of the Autonomists of Spain. The Cuban insurgents and their unqualified sympathizers above all things hope for affairs that will cause hostile relations between the United States and Spain. If a little American blood could be shed so as to have the desired effect, it would be regarded far more important than a bloody engagement going against the Spaniards. That there are expeditions on the sea and in course of preparation to bear recruits and munitions of war to the Cubans, is not denied. It is a matter of advertising; it is proclaimed by the press through the Associated Press and the United Press agencies, and is exploited by special correspondents. When a ship gets through, the warlike character of the crew and cargo is celebrated; and when one is captured, the innocence of all parties is proverbial.

It is the better way to tell the facts from the beginning, and it becomes a great nation to be candid and thoroughly truthful. The ill-fated Lopez expedition sailed from New Orleans as if enjoying a triumph, and was met on the coast of Florida with decoy letters, by which the unfortunate men were lured to their doom. The Spaniards had received from the United States full information. The filibusters left little for the spies to report. The claim of the officers of the Virginius was that she was an innocent American ship, and was taken in neutral waters with regular papers, and the people on her were warned; and yet the pleas were rather technical than actual, for the ship was loaded with fire-arms that were thrown away in the chase. Then the men were slaughtered as we have related, American citizens along with the rest, but the law and the facts made a complication such that President Grant, Secretary Fish and Minister Sickles extricated the country by a vigorous course of action that approached war, and accepted concessions so as to secure peace. The crew of the American schooner, Competitor have been tried by court-martial at Havana and condemned to death. There is a clear case of an American citizen among the condemned; not one of those referred to by the Spaniards, in the most merciless spirit as "Cubans, self-made American citizens, for the sole purpose of sedition in Cuba," hoping, if caught, to be protected by the United States or to stir up war between the two nations. There are so many American citizens provided with naturalization papers in Florida, as a part of equipment for aiding war against the Spaniards, that there is a perceptible interference with the defense of citizens who are undoubtedly Americans without sinister purpose.

It has been a complaint against Consul-General Williams that he has invented the classification of American citizens into actual and professional Americans. He may not have done this, but he has had a large and instructive experience with American citizens whose titles they could not always read clear, and one of the curiosities of taking an obligation in Havana, "On my word of honor as a native American, I tell you"-and there were those who considered this rather more binding than an average oath. (It should be understood that this is not given as an example of humor, but as a statement of fact; and upon this my word of honor as a native American is given.) The following information has been telegraphed from Jacksonville, Florida, to the secretary of state of the United States: