license, as required by a recent
rule of Weyler's.

The true cause of their arrest was that a number of packages containing
medicine and ammunition were found on board one of the trains leaving
Havana. Weyler declared that these packages were intended for the Cuban
rebels, and had the merchants arrested.

There is intense indignation in Havana over this outrage. All the men
arrested were wealthy and prominent, some having held important official
positions in the city--one in particular having been Mayor.

It is openly said that the whole affair was planned by the Spaniards to
give them an opportunity of plundering these men of their wealth. It is
reported that the Chief of Police has informed the prisoners that they
will be released, and no further proceedings taken against them, if they
will pay him the sum of one million dollars.

When the news of these arrests became known, crowds gathered around the
jail, protesting against the Government and calling loudly for the
recall of Weyler.

The Government in Madrid has been cabled to upon the subject, but so far
no reply has been received.

A dispatch from Madrid tells us that the people are indignant over Senor
Canovas' promise to send another twenty thousand soldiers to Cuba.

They say that Spain has already suffered enough, and that the
Government ought not to ask for any more money or soldiers.

They complain that they were told that Cuba was pacified a month ago,
and that nothing remained to be done but to subdue some bands of
insurgents that were scattered throughout the island. This was only a
month ago, and now they are asked to prepare a fresh army to go to Cuba,
and are told that the Spanish cause has met with disaster.

The Spanish papers are openly declaring that the time has come to put a
stop to the sacrifice of men and money, and that the mother country must
end her wars and give her people peace.

The latest news of the insurgents is that Gomez is advancing on Havana,
and promises that at the gates of the city he will show General Weyler
whether the island is really pacified or not.

He has issued a proclamation, saying that Spain might as well stop any
attempt to grant reforms to Cuba. He says: "We will accept neither
reforms nor home rule. Spain must know that this war is one for
independence, and that the Cubans would rather die than yield. The day
we lifted our flag of liberty, we wrote on it: 'Independence or death.'"

* *