ccupation is
evidenced by the minuteness of the details entered into, descending, as
we have seen, even to the pants of bathers and the bibs of the infant
nigger, but, by some unaccountable omission, giving no instructions as
to the tuckers of their mammas. If Tacon was feared and respected,
Valdes was beloved; and each appears to have fairly earned the
reputation he obtained. Valdes was succeeded by O'Donnell, whose rule
was inaugurated in negro blood. Frightful hurricanes soon followed, and
were probably sent in mercy to purify the island from the pollutions of
suffering and slaughter. During the rule of his successor, Roncali, the
rebel Lopez appears on the stage. The American campaign in Mexico had
stirred up a military ardour which extended to the rowdies, and a
piratical expedition was undertaken, with Lopez at the head. He had
acquired a name for courage in the Spanish army, and was much liked by
many of them, partly from indulging in the unofficer-like practice of
gambling and drinking with officers and men. His first attempt at a
landing was ludicrously hopeless, and he was very glad to re-embark
with a whole skin; but he was not the man to allow one failure to
dishearten him, for, independent of his courage, he had a feeling of
revenge to gratify.[AA] Having recruited his forces, he landed the
following year, 1851, with a stronger and better-equipped force of
American piratical brigands, and succeeded in stirring up a few Cubans
to rebellion. He maintained himself for a few days, struggling with a
courage worthy of a better cause. The pirates were defeated; Lopez was
made prisoner, and died by the garotte, at Havana, on the 1st of
September. Others also of the band paid the penalty of the law; and the
ruffian crew, who escaped to the United States, now constitute a kind of
nucleus for the "Lone Star," "Filibustero," and other such pests of the
community to gather round, being ready at any moment to start on a
buccaneering expedition, if they can only find another Lopez ass enough
to lead them.

Concha became governor-general just before Lopez' last expedition, and
the order for his execution was a most painful task for poor Concha, who
had been for many years an intimate friend of his. Concha appears to
have left an excellent name behind him. I always heard him called "the
honest governor." He introduced a great many reforms into the civil
code, and established a great many schools and scientific and literary