The gentleman above referred to was in Guatao at the time Captain Calvo was talking with the Mayor. He describes what occurred this way:

"I saw they were holding an excited debate about something, so I held up my driver till it was over. Then I talked to the Alcalde, and asked what occasioned all the fireworks between himself and the officer. He replied, 'I have just been asked about the rebels. I said I had seen four; he tells me, "You lie, you have seen a hundred.” I have only seen four, and they are down that road now.'

Charges Proved Untrue.

If the Mayor told the story just as it had occurred between himself and the officer a moment before, the account of it in the newspaper was an apparent attempt to clear the way for almost any sort of a report on the massacre. It would be easier after proving the chief witness unreliable to dispose of the stories of the women as attempts to shield their husbands. The government also took the ground that the insurgents were concealed in the church. This made it necessary to abandon the original charge that they were in the ittle thatched houses.

The authorities of Guatao opened the church and showed the officers, who went there to inspect it, that no horses or men could possibly have gotten into it. When this inspection was finished, the keeper of the church handed over the key, and the Mayor joined him in beseeching the Spanish officers to carry it away, so that whatever might happen again they would be relieved of the responsibility for keeping the structure free from invasion.

Ten more prisoners were taken at the time this investigation, as it is called, was going on. A Spanish column came into Punta Brava from the east. At the same moment another came into the place from the west. The second one picked up ten men working in tobacco fields on the outskirts of the town. A storekeeper, recognizing them, went up to the lieutenant commanding, and said that the arrests were unjust, as the men were "pacificados," or peaceful citizens

Then the lieutenant arrested the storekeeper. The two columns. were at opposite ends of the main street, their officers disputing as to which was properly in possession of the place, as their orders were slightly conflicting, when a third column arrived with a captain in charge. He settled the difficulty by occupying the town himself, and after learning of the arrest of the ten tobacco-workers he liberated them all.

Heavy Guard of Soldiers.

The demonstrations against Americans in Havana were confined to individual encounters, where there were no serious results. A heavy guard of soldiers was quartered in a building near the Consul's office, and the patrolling of the streets was kept up with vigilance day and night. Where more than four men got together a soldier was at hand to scatter them. In the Plaza, when the military was playing, the crowds were constantly kept moving. An effort to get up a students' demonstration fell flat, because a majority of the students were in sympathy with the Americans.

There never was a time when the students were to be feared, on that account. The source of danger was the volunteers. A correspondent relates that he was talking with a hotel waiter after he had been away for a day. He said he was out doing duty as a volunteer. He was a little sawed-off ignoramus, and the correspondent was curious enough to ask him how his companions felt toward Uncle Sam.

"Muera Senor Sam," he hissed, bringing his fist down with a whack on the table.

"Death to Mr. Sam ?" I repeated. "Why so?"

"He is going to help the insurrectors. We'll have to kill them all."

"But I'm an American; would you kill me, too?"

He seemed to be confronted by a situation for a moment only, when he said, sadly but earnestly:

"I am your friend, Senor, but I should have to kill you."

At that moment another Spaniard came up. Senor, allow me to present my friend As I was just telling this American gentle

man, Spain will find every loyal son shoulder to shoulder, fighting till the last drop of blood is shed to avenge such an insult to our national honor as this uncalled-for interference of America.”

This is not half-hearted hypocrisy. It is the way men talk who have been ruined by the collapse of every kind of business in the Island, and who want peace and prosperity restored at any cost. They are Spaniards, but they have been so long in commercial intercourse with the United States that their sentimental attachment to the theory of Spain's right to Cuba has been blunted by a period of successful business. All Cuba's enterprises are practically inseparable from the States, while Spain stands by as a third party, consuming half the profits that would naturally accrue to the other two. At such a price sentiment comes too high to maintain a secure position among hard-headed merchants.

The Cienfuegos houses resolved to boycott the United States, and proposed to do so by cancelling all their purchasing orders and refusing to sell to American buyers. This was considerable of a joke in its way. They would have to buy from Havana instead, and Havana would continue to buy direct from the States until war or something as serious should prevent. The merchants at Havana held a meeting to discuss retaliation of the same sort, but when it was pointed out to them that American houses would merely send out their own agents to sell their products they saw the danger ahead and contented themselves with resolutions praising the Cienfuegos merchants. They could afford to do that, as their commissions were being helped by the necessity of Cienfuegos buying here.

Two nephews of the Queen, the Princes of Caserta, were in an engagement in Sagua on March 3. The insurgents were led by Serafin Sanchez, Nunez and Alvarez. All that has ever been printed about the fight here was contained in a ten-line item, in which the insurgents lost thirty dead and forty wounded. The Queen cabled congratulations to General Weyler upon the glorious victory, and yesterday the insurgent loss was changed to read "60 dead and 150 wounded." It is impossible to learn anything else here about the battle.

TH

CHAPTER XI

Freedom for Cuba.

HE sympathy in Congress for the cause of Cuba received formal expression on February 28th. On that date the meet

ing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations resulted in action of a more vigorous character than the most ardent friend of the cause of Cuba was justified in expecting. The committee decided, after some debate, that it would not accept the wording of a resolution already adopted by the House Committee, but would cling to one of its own, which was looked upon as even stronger than any yet seriously considered-stronger because the committee capitulated to the sentiment represented in the resolution of Mr. Cameron declaring for the independence of the Cuban Republic.

It was agreed that when the question reached the voting stage Mr. Sherman, for the commiteee, was to recoramend and urge the passage of the following, which was the language of the substitute reported by Mr. Morgan:

"Resolved, by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That, in the opinion of Congress, a condition of public war exists between the government of Spain and the government proclaimed and for some time maintained by force of arms by the people of Cuba and that the United States of America should maintain a strict neutrality between the contending powers, according to each all the rights of belligerents in the ports and territory of the United States."

As the day wore on in the Senate the crowds in the galleries and on the floor increased. The diplomatic gallery, for once, was well filled. Nearly every member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee was on the Senate floor, and they listened to the speeches with the greatest interest.