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Outline History of Cuba from May, 1896, to January, 1897: Reviera

There is a Key West dispatch, December 24th, stating that "Gen. Reviera is moving out of his intrenchments, and reports indicate that a battle may be fought soon;" but if he has an army in a strong position, he will of course wait right there for Weyler, and they will not fight it out. The old policy is plenty of time.

However, the word battle is habitually used in reference to the Cuban combats as descriptive of very small affairs. If Reviera had ten thousand good men, there might be a chance for a decisive battle; but the Junta claims that his force is six thousand strong. The story of the naval engagement is an example of the waste of words in picturesque writing. It seems a filibuster boat, whose reputation is well known--The Three Friends--encountered a Spanish launch and gunboat when attempting to land rifles and artillery and ammunition at the mouth of the San Juan river, on the south coast of Cuba, two hundred miles east of Havana, and there was considerable firing into the water, but no one hurt, and yet we read of "a sea fight," a "victory," for the boat that fled, and "a naval engagement," that should startle the world. Why, the story of the battle of the Nile was never printed in such colors as this fake fight, which simply shows the recklessness of filibusters, who made a narrow' escape from furnishing the raw material for another Virginius case. The only thing of importance is the proof furnished of the long-known and formally denied business of the vessel whose crew and passengers boast that they fired on the flag of Spain, and "whipped up the sea" with their bullets. The Journal has a characteristic proclamation from the eloquent, poetic Spanish statesman, Castelar, who writes in and is cabled from Madrid. And as Cleveland has acted, so will McKinley. As a Republican, he will perhaps do even more than would a Democrat to discourage jingoes who advocate a war, bound to be equally fatal to victor and vanquished, breaking the bonds of association which bind the Old World to the New.