The natural consequence was that a rush set in for the Klondike, which is the name of a tributary of the Yukon, and flows through the richest gold fields, where the mining days of early California were repeated.
Dawson City was founded at the mouth of the Klondike, and in a short time had a population of 5,000. Before the year closed, 500 claims were located, with more taken up daily. As was inevitable, there was much suffering, for the Yukon is closed by ice during the greater part of the year, and the winter climate is of Arctic severity. The most productive fields were found to be not in Alaska, but in the British provinces known as the Northwest Territories. While many gathered fortunes in the Klondike, the majority, after great hardships and suffering, returned to their homes poorer than when they left them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: READY FOR THE TRAIL.]
SPAIN"S MISRULE IN CUBA.
The administration of McKinley occupies a prominent place in American history because of our brief and decisive war with Spain. A full account is given in the pages that follow, but it is proper in this chapter to set forth some historical facts, that will serve to clear the way to a proper understanding of the story of the war itself.
Spain may best ill.u.s.trate the certain decline of the Latin race and the rise of the Anglo-Saxon. When America was discovered, she was the leading maritime power of the world, but she was corrupt, rapacious, ferocious, and totally devoid of what is best expressed by the term "common sense." So lacking indeed was she in this prime requisite that she alienated, when it was just as easy to attract, the weaker nations and colonies with which she came in contact. It has been shown in the earlier chapters of this work that when her exploring expeditions into the interior of America were obliged to depend for their own existence upon the good-will of the natives, and when they could readily gain and retain that good-will, they roused the hatred of the simple-minded natives by their frightful cruelties. The chief amus.e.m.e.nt of the early Spaniards was killing Indians. They did it from the innate brutality of their nature, when they could have gained tenfold more by justice and kindness.
The treatment of those poor people was precisely what on a larger scale has been shown to her colonies. England wins and holds her dependencies through her liberality and justice; Spain repels hers through her treachery, falsehoods, and injustice. As a consequence, England has become one of the mightiest nations in the world, while Spain has steadily declined to a fourth-rate power. With the example of the results of her idiocy, to say nothing of its dishonor, ever before her, she has persisted in that idiocy, never learning from experience, but always selfish, short-sighted, cruel, treacherous, and unjust.
The steadiness with which Cuba clung to the mother country won for her the t.i.tle of the "Ever Faithful Isle." Had she received any consideration at all, she still would have held fast. She poured princely revenues into the lap of Spain; when other colonies revolted, she refused to be moved. It required long years of outrage, robbery, and injustice to turn her affection into hate, but Spain persisted until the time came when human nature could stand no more. The crushed worm turned at last.
When Napoleon Bonaparte deposed the Bourbon King, Ferdinand VII., in 1808, and placed his brother Joseph on the throne of Spain, Cuba declared her loyalty to the old dynasty, and the king made many promises of what he would do to prove his grat.i.tude when he should come to his own. This took place five years later, whereupon the king violated every pledge he had made.
The truth gradually worked its way into the Cuban mind that the only thing a Spaniard could be depended upon to do is to violate his most solemn promises. Secret societies began a.s.suming form in the island, whose plotting and aim were to wrest their country from Spain, on the ground of the non-fulfillment of the pledges made by Ferdinand VII. of what he would do when he came to the throne.
Preparations were made for a revolt, whose avowed object was the establishment of a Cuban republic. A certain night in 1823 was fixed upon for a general uprising, but there were traitors in the councils, who notified the authorities, and, before the date named, the leaders were arrested and the revolt quenched ere a blow could be struck.
These severe measures could not quell the spirit of liberty that was abroad. It was not long before the Black Eagle Society was formed. It included many hundred members, had its headquarters in Mexico, and boldly secured recruits in the United States. But again the cause was betrayed by its members, the leaders were arrested and imprisoned, and Spain was secure for a time in the control of the island.
As an ill.u.s.tration of that country"s course against suspected citizens, it may be said that in 1844 a rumor spread that large numbers of the slaves on the plantations near Matanzas were making secret preparations to rise and slay their masters. Investigation failed to establish the truth of these charges, but many were put to the torture to compel them to confess, and nearly a hundred were condemned and shot in cold blood.
[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL CALIXTO GARCIA.
Hero of three wars for Cuba"s freedom. Died of pneumonia in Washington, D.C., December, 1898.]
Naturally the affairs of Cuba from its proximity were always of great interest to the United States, and a number of filibustering expeditions landed on the island and aided the Cubans in their futile revolts against Spain. These attempts at their best could only keep the island in a turmoil, and give Spain the pretext for using the most brutal measures of repression.
In 1868 a revolution occurred in Spain itself, and Queen Isabella, one of the worst rulers that sorely accursed country ever had, was driven into exile. Cuba had not forgotten the lesson of the opening of the century, and, instead of proclaiming her loyalty to the deposed dynasty, she seized what promised to be a favorable opportunity for gaining her own independence.
One of the fairest and most impartial publications anywhere is the _Edinburgh Review_, which used the following language in giving the reasons for the Cuban revolt of 1868:
"Spain governs the island of Cuba with an iron and blood-stained hand. The former holds the latter deprived of political, civil, and religious liberties. Hence the unfortunate Cubans being illegally prosecuted and sent into exile, or executed by military commissions, in times of peace; hence their being kept from public meetings, and forbidden to speak or write on affairs of State; hence their remonstrances against the evils that afflicted them being looked upon as the proceedings of rebels, from the fact that they are obliged to keep silence and obey; hence the never-ending plague of hungry officials from Spain to devour the product of their industry and labor; hence their exclusion from the art of government; hence the restrictions to which public instruction with them is subjected in order to keep them so ignorant as not to be able to know and enforce their rights in any shape or form whatever; hence the navy and the standing army, which are kept in their country at an enormous expenditure from their own wealth to make them bend their knees and submit their necks to the iron yoke that disgraces them; hence the grinding taxation under which they labor, and which would make all perish in misery but for the marvelous fertility of their soil."
The opportunity was a golden one for Spain to win back the affection of Cuba by generosity and justice. What steps did she take to do so?
Although the Cubans were ground to the very dust by taxation, levied in all cases by Spaniards, and not by their own officials, Spain proposed, in 1868, to add to the burden. In October of that year Carlos M. de Cespedes, a lawyer of Bayamo, raised the standard of revolt, placed himself at the head of a handful of patriots, which were soon joined by thousands, and in April, 1869, a republican const.i.tution was adopted, slavery declared abolished, Cespedes was elected president, Francisco Aguilero vice-president, and a legislature was called together.
There never was hope of this insurrection securing the independence of Cuba. The patriots were too few in number, too badly armed and equipped, and not handled so as to be effective. But they caused great suffering and ruin throughout the island. They inst.i.tuted a guerrilla system of warfare, and cost Spain many valuable lives. The wet and rainy seasons came and went, and still the savage fighting continued, until at last the rebels as well as the Spaniards were ready to welcome peace.
Martinez Campos was the Spanish commander, and he promised General Maximo Gomez, leader of the insurgents, that the reforms for which he and his comrades were contending should be granted on condition that they laid down their arms. The pledge was a sacred one, and no doubt Campos meant honestly to keep it. Unfortunately, however, there were higher powers than he behind him. Gomez accepted the promises of a brother soldier, and on February 10, 1878, the treaty of El Zanjon was signed.
This treaty guaranteed representation to the Cubans in the Spanish Cortes, and all who took part in the insurrection were pardoned.
Now the lesson of all this was so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, had no excuse for erring. Spain had bitterly learned the temper of the Cubans. She could not fail to see that but one possible way existed for her to retain control of them, and, of course, that was the very way she avoided. The Madrid authorities thought they did a wise thing when they secured control of the polls, and made sure that the delegates elected were their own. Schools, sewerage, roads, everything that could help the island were neglected and taxation increased. The reforms promised to the insurgents upon condition of laying down their arms proved a delusion and a snare. Thus the "captain-general" had his name changed to "governor-general," but his tyrannical powers remained the same as before. The right of banishment was formally repealed, but the outrages continued under another law that was equally effective, and so on to the end of the chapter. Once again the Cubans had been fooled by trusting to Spanish honor. They resolved that as soon as arrangements could be effected, they would set another insurrection on foot, which would be fought out to the death or until independence was secured.
[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL MAXIMO GOMEZ.
_The Washington of Cuba_ is the t.i.tle applied to this hero, who, as Commander-in-Chief of the patriot army, made Cuban liberty possible.]
Several important ends were accomplished by the Ten Years" War. Slavery was abolished in 1886, and the island was divided into the present six provinces. As in previous instances the United States was counted upon for the greatest material a.s.sistance in prosecuting the revolution. The spirit of adventure is always strong among Americans, and the filibustering enterprises appealed strongly to them. The spice of danger by which they were attended was their chief attraction. Our government was bound by treaty to prevent them, so far as she could, and it went to great expense in doing so. A number of expeditions were unable to get away from New York, but others escaped the vigilance of officials, and landed guns, ammunition, and men at different points on the island. One of the greatest helps in this unlawful business was the dishonesty of the officials employed by Spain to prevent the landing of supplies and men. There was never any difficulty in bribing these officers, who stumbled over one another in their eagerness to be bribed.
THE LAST CUBAN REVOLUTION LAUNCHED.
Meanwhile, the leaders in the former late revolt were consulting upon the best steps to launch the new revolution. Maximo Gomez was living in San Domingo, and, when he was offered the command of the revolutionary forces, he promptly accepted the responsibility. The offer came to him through Jose Marti, the head of the organization.
The grim veterans were resolute in their purpose. After studying the situation, they agreed that a general uprising should be set on foot in all the provinces on February 24, 1895. It was impossible to do this, but the standard of revolt was raised on the date named in three of the provinces.
One Spanish official read truly the meaning of the signs. He was Calleja, the captain-general. Though the revolt in the province of Santiago de Cuba looked trifling, he knew it was like a tiny blaze kindled in the dry prairie gra.s.s. He wished to act liberally toward the insurgents, but the blind government at Madrid blocked his every step.
Since it had played the fool from the beginning, it kept up the farce to the end. They ordered Calleja to stamp out the rebellion, and he did his utmost to obey orders.
Could the royal and insurgent forces be brought to meet in fair combat, the latter would have been crushed out of existence at the first meeting. But the insurgent leaders were too shrewd to risk anything of that nature. They resumed their guerrilla tactics, striking hard blows, here, there, anywhere that the chance offered, and then fled into the woods and mountains before the regulars could be brought against them.
Such a style of warfare is always cruel and accompanied by outrages of a shocking character. The Cubans were as savage in their methods as the Spaniards. They blew up bridges and railroad trains with dynamite, regardless of the fact that, in so doing, it was the innocent instead of the guilty who suffered. They burned the sugar cane, destroyed the tobacco and coffee plantations, and impoverished the planters in order to shut off the revenues of Spain and deprive her forces of their needed supplies; they spread desolation and ruin everywhere, in the vain hope that the mother country could thus be brought to a realizing sense of the true situation.
But Spain was deaf and blind. She sent thousands of soldiers across the Atlantic, including the members of the best families in the kingdom, to die in the pestilential lowlands of Cuba, while trying to stamp out the fires of revolution that continually grew and spread.
The island was cursed by three political parties, each of which was strenuous in the maintenance of its views. The dominant party of course was the loyalists, who held all the offices and opposed any compromise with the insurgents. They were quite willing to make promises, with no intention of fulfilling them, but knew the Cubans could no longer be deceived.
The second party was the insurgents, who, as has been shown, had "enlisted for the war," and were determined not to lay down their arms until independence was achieved. The autonomists stood between these extremes, favoring home rule instead of independence, while admitting the misgovernment of Cuba.
[Ill.u.s.tration: JOSe MARTI.
President of the Cuban Revolutionary Party. Led into ambush and killed by the Spaniards, May 19, 1895.]
The Spaniards were determined to prevent the coming of Antonio Maceo, a veteran of the Ten Years" War, possessed of great courage and resources, who was living in Costa Rica. They knew he had been communicated with and his presence would prove a tower of strength to the insurgents.
Bodies of Spanish cavalry galloped along the coasts, on the alert to catch or shoot the rebel leader, while the officials closely watched all arrivals at the seaports for the feared rebel.
Despite these precautions, Maceo and twenty-two comrades of the previous war effected a landing on the eastern end of the island. They were almost immediately discovered by the Spanish cavalry, and a fierce fight followed, in which several Cubans were killed. Maceo fought furiously, seemingly inspired by the knowledge that he was again striking for the freedom of his country, and he came within a hair of being killed. He eluded his enemies, however, and, plunging into the thickets, started for the interior to meet the other insurgent leaders. The abundance of tropical fruits saved him from starving, and it was not long before he met with straggling bodies of his countrymen, who hailed his coming with enthusiasm. Recruits rapidly gathered around him, and he placed himself at the head of the ardent patriots.
It was just ten days after the landing of Maceo that Gomez and Jose Marti, coming from Santo Domingo, landed on the southern coast of Cuba.
They had a lively time in avoiding the Spanish patrol, but succeeded in reaching a strong force of insurgents, and Gomez a.s.sumed his duties as commander-in-chief. Recruits were gathered to the number of several thousand, and Gomez and Marti started for the central provinces with the purpose of formally establishing the government. Marti was led astray on the road by a treacherous guide and killed.
Fully alive to the serious work before him, Captain-General Calleja called upon Spain for help in quelling the rebellion. She sent 25,000 troops to Cuba and Calleja was relieved by Field-Marshal Campos. This was a popular move, for it was Campos who brought the Ten Years" War to a close, and it was generally believed he would repeat his success.
The first important act of Campos was to divide Cuba into zones, by means of a number of strongly guarded military lines, extending north and south across the narrower part of the island. They were called "trochas," and were expected to offer an impa.s.sable check to the insurgents, who, thus confined within definite limits, could be crushed or driven into the sea with little difficulty.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ANTONIO MACEO.
Lieutenant-General in the Cuban Army.]
The scheme, however, was a failure. The rebels crossed the trochas at will, kept up their guerrilla tactics, picked off the regulars, destroyed railroad trains, and went so far as to shoot the messengers who dared to enter their camp with proposals for making peace on other terms than independence.
The Cubans were full of hope. They had their old leaders with them, men who had led them in former campaigns and proven their courage and skill.
Recruits flocked to their standards, until it has been estimated that by the close of the year fully 20,000 insurgents were in the field. With such strong commands, the leaders were able to attain several important successes. Considerable bodies of the regulars were defeated with serious losses, and, in one instance, Campos succeeded in saving himself and command only by the artillery he happened to have with him.