d Peninsular troops in the island; a vast number of
employes, part of the clergy and half the entire navy of Spain; the
diplomatic corps in the United States and Mexico; many officials of rank
at home in Spain; and the surplus is remitted to Spain, and spent on the
Peninsula on matters entirely foreign to the interests of the island
itself. A precious state of affairs!

The colored population of the island, both slaves and free, hated the
Spaniards, for good reasons. The war party, moreover, reckoned on the
genius of a leader (Lopez) trained to arms,[8] equal in talents to any
of the Spanish generals, and beloved by the Spanish troops, as well as
by the Cuban population; and they relied, also, as we have said, on the
sympathy and ultimate aid of the United States government. It is
undoubtedly true that interested parties in this country, prompted by
mercenary motives, increased this latter delusion by false reports;
while the Cuban conspirators, in turn, buoyed up the hopes of their
friends in the United States, by glowing accounts of the patriotic
spirit of the Creoles, and the extent of the preparations they were
making for a successful revolt. General Lopez was actively arranging the
means for an invasion, when, in 1849, the United States government threw
terror into the ranks of the _flibustiers_, by announcing its
determination to enforce the sacredness of treaty stipulations. This,
for a time, frustrated the intended invasion.

In 1850 Lopez succeeded in effecting his first descent upon the island.
Having succeeded in baffling the vigilance of the United States
government, an expedition, consisting of six hundred and fifty-two men,
was embarked on board two sailing-vessels and the steamer Creole, which
conveyed the general and his staff. In the beginning of July the
sailing-vessels left New Orleans, with orders to anchor at Contoy, one
of the Mugeres Islands, on the coast of Yucatan; the general followed,
on the Creole, on the 7th. At the time when the troops were embarked on
the Creole at Contoy, fifty-two of the number, who had been deceived as
to the nature of the expedition, refused to follow the general, and were
left on the island, with the intention of returning to the United States
in the two schooners. General Lopez, after gaining some information from
a fisherman he encountered, resolved to land at Cardenas, on the
northern coast of the island, a hundred and twenty miles east of Havana.
He calculated th