opted to secure this end.

"I read in an American paper the other day that General Weyler was
poisoning the streams from which the insurgents drink in Matanzas
province. It was not true, but I only wish it had been.

"General Weyler is our man. We feel sure of him. He will not be
satisfied until every insurgent lies in the ditch with his throat cut,
and that is all we want."

Stop a moment and think! These words were spoken at the end of the
nineteenth century by the representative of a professed Christian
country. How have the teachings of Christ, who always and primarily
advocated charity, been forgotten or perverted!

The whole matter of Cuba under Spanish rule is a disgrace to the age we
live in.

But (call it spread-eagleism if you like) the United States now has the
affair in hand. It can and will right this wrong, and so effectively
that there will be no possibility of its recurrence.

CHAPTER XI.

TWO METHODS OF WARFARE: THE SPANISH AND THE CUBAN.

Now let us turn to the one crime, so-called, that has been alleged
against the Cubans.

We refer to the burning of the sugar crops.

That this has been done on each and every occasion, no one will deny. At
first glance, it seems an act of vandalism. But is it so? Let us examine
carefully into the causes and reasons for it.

The Spaniards claim that it is a notable example of the reckless and
uncivilized methods of the insurgents. On the contrary, it is a policy
which was carefully planned and systematically carried out by Gomez and
the other Cuban leaders.

In a proclamation by Gomez, he ordered his lieutenants to burn the sugar
plantations, but he did not tell them to destroy the mills, because he
did not wish, in case of his succeeding in his purpose of liberating
Cuba, to lay the producers flat upon their backs, from which position
they could never, or, only with the utmost difficulty, arise.

The destruction of the sugar cane was a necessity of war. It must be
remembered that from the sugar crop Spain has received her largest
revenue from Cuba, and to cut off this source of revenue is to cripple
Spain and take away from her a large sum of money with which she might
otherwise wage warfare.

To show that the damage wrought is by no means irreparable, we cannot do
better than quote Baron Antomarchi, a Frenchman who lived for a long
time in Cuba, was there during the early part of the present
insurrection, and knows of what he is speaking: