FILIBUSTERS FROM FLORIDA.

First Expeditions-Expense to the United States-President Pierce's Action -The Uprising in 1868-The Patrol of the Coasts-An Expedition on the "Three Friends"-Arms and Ammunition for the Insurgents-Desperate Chances-A Successful Landing.

The record of the last fifty years is the clearest and most convincing evidence that can be offered against the Spanish contention that the United States is not concerned with the question of government in Cuba, and has not been tremendously injured by the inability of Spanish administration to furnish the Cubans with a peaceful and satisfactory government. The first bit of evidence to be submitted comes from away back in 1848, when President Polk, on behalf of the United States, announced that while the United States was willing that Cuba should be continued under Spanish ownership and government, it would never consent to the occupation of the island by any other European nation.

It was pointed out at that time by the American government that were the United States to admit that Cuba was open to seizure by any government that was able to throw Spain out the fact that it was nearly surrounded, in Central and South America and in other West Indian islands, by territory belonging to twelve other nations would make it the ground of interminable squabbles. And these squabbles were not matters which would be without interest and damage to the commerce and peace of the United States. This was followed by an offer of $100,000,000 to Spain for the island of Cuba. The offer was promptly declined, and the United States was informed that Cuba was not on the market.

First Filibustering Expedition.

Nevertheless, there was formed in the United States the Lone Star Society, which had as its object "the acquisition of the island of Cuba as part of the territory of the United States."

The "Conspiracy of Lopez," which is fully treated of in previous

pages of this work, was the first filibustering expedition that attracted particular attention from the authorities, and it was hoped that its disastrous end would deter others from like attempts. But the hope was a vain one, for within two years a similar expedition, led by General Quitman of Mississippi, was organized in the United States. Many men were enlisted and vessels chartered, but the expedition was suppressed by the government of the United States.

Expense to United States.

It will thus be seen that the fact that Spain had not been able to govern Cuba peaceably has caused the United States great expense and irritation for a much longer period than is usually taken into consideration in these days. It is not the fault of the United States that its 'citizens have been stirred to sympathy with the victims of the Spanish policy of government by robbery and murder. It is not the fault of the United States that this country has been the refuge of men who have been outlawed from the country of their birth because their presence there meant the irrepressible working in them of a desire for freedom, a desire intolerable to Spanish institutions.

It is not the fault of the United States that these refugees, living in the land of civil liberty, should desire to return to their native country and drive out those who made it miserable. But it would have been the fault of the United States, under international law, if these exiled Cubans were permitted to carry out their very natural and laudable desire in concert with the Americans whose sympathy had been stirred by the story of Spanish wrongs. To ferret out the plans for expeditions conceived with such determination and perseverance was not only a task requiring tremendous expenditure of money and energy, but it was a miserably disagreeable and unpopular work for the government to engage in.

On the 31st of May, 1854, President Pierce issued a proclamation instructing citizens of the United States as to their duties in refraining from encouragement, aid, or participation in connection with the Cuban insurrections.

The Uprising in 1868.

In the fall of 1868, after scattering uprisings and several battles during the preceding year, plans for a concerted insurrection were arranged. The plan was discovered and the insurrection was started

prematurely. There followed a campaign in which Spanish forces, amounting to 110,000 men, were unable to hold in check the Cuban force of about 26,000. In May the filibustering expeditions, that were to prove such an immense expense and annoyance to the United States, began again. The Spanish navy co-operated with the United States government in the efforts to suppress these expeditions, but many of them eluded the authorities, and aided the insurgents with arms and provisions.

This was irritating to Spain and the United States alike, because it cost just as much to keep up an unsuccessful anti-filibustering patrol as it did actually to catch filibusters, and, moreover, every successful expedition weakened the authority of the Federal government. That authority in the Southern States just after the war was none too strong, and it was not a good thing that the spectacle of defiance to the United States should be flaunted along the Southern coast.

From 1878 until 1895, when the present insurrection gained strength to become openly active, the island is supposed to have been at peace, but in the latter year the open war and filibustering expeditions began again. The name of President Cleveland was added to the list of Presidents whose duty it was to interfere with efforts to aid Cuban liberty. He issued appropriate proclamations on June 12, 1895, and July 30, 1896. Revenue cutters and warships constantly patrolled the Florida coast and, indeed, all the waters of the gulf, and sometimes New York harbor, to head off filibustering expeditions. It is said to have cost more to suppress the natural desire of citizens of the United States to relieve the political distress in Cuba than it has cost to enforce customs regulations from the same territory.

The Voyage of the "Three Friends."

As evidence of the fact that Cuban sympathizers have been suc cessful in escaping the patrol on American coasts and the enemy's battleships in Cuban waters, we give the report of one of many expeditions that have been made during the past three years.

The steamer "Three Friends," of Jacksonville, Florida, in command of Captain Napoleon B. Broward, returned to Jacksonville on March 18th, having succeeded in landing in Cuba, General Enrique Collazo, Major Charles Hernandez, and Duke Estrada, besides fifty-four men taken off the schooner "Ardell" from Tampa, and the entire cargo of arms and ammunition of the schooner "Mallory" from Cedar Key. It