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The Record of Desolation and Despair: Lazcano
On the sugar estate Santiago, in the province of Pinar del Rio, Lieut. Lazcano, who was commanding the vanguard of Gen. Arolas, met an old Cuban laborer who was watering his cattle. He asked him what he was doing. "You see," answered the man. Instantly he was shot dead by Lazcano. Then Lazcano went to Arolas and told him: "I have killed an insurgent." "All right," was the reply. "Do it again."
In Cervantes the same Spanish column assassinated one night twenty-two peaceful laborers. On the sugar estate Vizcaya, another man was shot by the guerilla of Lieut. Campillo. In the province of Matanzas no countryman escapes if he is a Cuban. In San Jose de Los Ramos the crimes committed by the Spanish troops are numerous. On the farm San Cristobal, Bernabe Ramos, a laborer, father of four children, was killed simply because he was a Cuban. His friend, Felix Ramos, having also a large family, and Jose Fabio, an employee, were shot also. On the neighboring estate Santa Rita Jorgo Vento, another pacifico, was hanged. On the sugar plantation Progresso Pedro Ortiz, Ceferino Fernandez, Pedro Hoyos, and the latter's three sons, 20, 17, and 15 years of age, were shot. And these ghastly murders are called "making war." One of the complaints of American citizens of property destroyed--and it is true there are many millions of American investments in the Island--is filed by the brothers Farrar, owners of the coffee plantation Estrella in the Havana province, and is supported by this statement:
On Saturday, March 21, the dwelling house of the coffee plantation Estrella was the object of wanton attack by the column of Gen. Bernat, operating in that region. The said building received cannon shots of grape and canister, breaking the door, one window, several piazza columns, and greatly endangering the lives of the families of my brothers Don Tasio and Don Luis Farrar, both American citizens, the wife of the former being enciente. There were two small children in the house. From my information, it appears, that the troops mentioned had sustained fire with a rebel band in Paz plantation, a quarter-league from Estrella.
The rebels having fled to Pedroso and Buena Esperanza plantations, the government troops advanced toward Estrella, in quite an opposite direction from that taken by the rebels. On arriving at the borders of Estrella plantation, the Spanish columns began firing cannon at the dwelling house, and it was immediately invaded by soldiers, who ransacked it, carrying off from wardrobes all jewelry and men's clothing which they contained, as well as a sum of about $60 in money. They also took away everything found in workmen's dwellings, arresting at the same time twelve of the occupants whom they conducted to Alquizar as insurgents. It should be observed that the cannon were fired solely at the dwelling house of the owners, although there were twenty other buildings on the plantation, and the place was entirely clear of insurgents.
In consideration of all the above, and particularly on account of the danger to which his relatives were exposed, and also for the unjustifiable looting on the part of the regular troops in the service of a constituted government, the undersigned does most solemnly protest, and asks an immediate indemnity for the damages suffered, which he values at $5,000, as all work has been stopped on the plantation and everything abandoned In the midst of this merciless war, there is on the part of the combatants no thought of peace. "The surest way of bringing hostilities to a close," says General Maceo, "is to place in Cuba 20,000 rifles and 4,000,000 cartridges. It would be a great service to Cuba," he says, "if the United States would not interfere with the shipment of arms and ammunition" as he understands such shipments would be legal.
It is said that the Bermuda on her second excursion "carried 1,000 rifles, 500,000 cartridges, two Gatling guns, many machetes, and 1,000 pounds of dynamite, besides uniforms, rubber coats and medicines. "The arms, ammunition and supplies were landed in six big surf boats that were taken aboard the steamship at Jacksonville."
It is not yet bread, but only cartridges, that the Cubans cry for, and the Spanish policy of vengeance shows no sign of abatement. We say policy of vengeance, because the cost of this war added to the last would absorb all the money that could ever be exacted from the productive industries of the Island, if we may imagine, which we do not, their revival under the flag of Spain. The only use Spain can have for Cuba hereafter, and this is the outcome of all complications, is as a place for the favorites of the Spanish government to pillage. Even that comes to an end in the poverty of the people. In Havana, that was a man of affairs in Cuba who said: "I am ruined if the Spaniards succeed in their strife for contest. I am ruined if the revolutionists succeed and the independence of Cuba does not mean annexation to the United States, for in either case we shall be under the rule of the sword until we are in the Union. My hope then," said this citizen of Cuba, "is in the union of my country as a state with the states of the American Union. It is a far-off, faint hope, but all I have. Without it my estate is annihilated, and my wife and children will come to want, for I shall be broken and done. I am not a political theorist. All I ask is a government that keeps order without tyranny and suppresses corruption so that a man who is honest has fair play. Men of my class were nearly used up when the war began, and we are punished as the case stands." This was the despairing utterance of a man who had been a millionaire, and now mourned his broad fields desolate, his palace beyond his avenue of royal palms in ruins, his wife and children sheltered by marble and surrounded by splendid appointments, but stinted for the necessaries of life. There is constant controversy as to the civil government of Cuba, and it is just as well the friends of the freedom of the Island should say frankly that it is but a shadow.
Mr. Hitt, in the House of Representatives, speaking for the recognition within conservative limitations of the rights of belligerency, said: "The Spanish troops are practically penned up in the cities. They have only detachments outside of towns. The country is Cuban and the Cuban army holds it. The Cuban capital, Cubitas, is more secure than Havana is to-day. It is not a war of similar dimensions to the ten years' war of 1868 and 1878. That never extended far beyond the eastern province of Santiago, and even that it was impossible for the power of Spain to subdue. They held that monarchy at bay for ten years, although they had not an armed force one-fourth as great as that now under the commands of Generals Gomez and Maceo."
We cannot give full consent to this for Havana is not and has not been for a moment in the slightest danger from the insurgents, and Cubitas is only safe in that sense that it is unsearchable. It is true, though, that the country is Cuban and the Cuban army holds it, except that part which is under the feet of armed Spaniards. It is true, too, that this war is a greater struggle than the one that lasted so long. If this goes on, it must end in total ruin to everybody involved. Spaniards and Cubans are falling together into an abyss. The answer that should be made to the assertion that the Cubans have no civil government, is that they have as much authority of a civic character as the Spaniards, for there is nothing but martial law in the Island. The fight of Spain is to continue martial law, and the Cubans are in arms to overthrow the Spanish law, which is administered by soldiers by force of arms. Some of the Cuban people thought to govern themselves, and they will seek first to be emancipated from military despotism, and the way to do it is to organize as a state and apply for admission to the United States. The importance of belligerency recognition is exaggerated. It is a question of cartridges and rifles, and it is not the part of revolutionists to regard proclamations and decrees as essential.
The Cubans have been exerting themselves to the utmost to provide by their loan, recently negotiated, means to capture a port and hold it. To this end they have been arming vessels, buying artillery, and firing upon Spanish gun-boats with some effect. If they could hold a port, especially in the west end, it would be a powerful argument for recognition by all nations. Some of the cartridges Maceo needs so bitterly appear to have been captured, but there is news from Jacksonville of the Bermuda.
The manifest shows that an immense cargo of Gatling and Hotchkiss guns, rifles, machetes, revolvers, powder, cartridges, torpedoes, etc., is carried. John Kennedy, an employee of J.A. Huau, a Cuban, professed to be the shipper, and the munitions are consigned to the Central American Fruit Company, Puerto Cortez, Honduras.