-frigate Pizarro. The Spanish prisoners
were landed at Cayo de Piedras, and then Lopez, discovering the Pizarro
in the distance, made for the American continent, where the steamer was
abandoned. General Lopez was arrested by the authorities of Savannah,
but liberated again, in deference to the public clamor. The Creole was
seized, confiscated and sold. The invaders disbanded; and thus this
enterprise terminated.

A less enterprising and determined spirit than that of General Lopez
would have been completely broken by the failure of his first attempts,
the inactivity of the Cubans, the hostility of the American government,
and the formidable forces and preparations of the Spanish officials. He
believed, however, that the Cubans were ripe for revolt; that public
opinion in the United States would nullify the action of the federal
government; and that, if he could once gain a foothold in the island,
the Spanish troops would desert in such numbers to his banners that the
preponderance of power would soon be upon his side; and, with these
views, he once more busied himself, with unremitting industry, to form
another expedition.

Meanwhile, the daring attack upon Cardenas, while it demonstrated the
determination of the invading party, caused great anxiety in the mind of
General Roncali. True, he had at his disposal an army of more than
twenty thousand regular troops; but he was by no means sure of their
loyalty, and he therefore determined to raise a local militia; but, as
he suffered only Spaniards to enlist in it, he aroused the jealousy of
the Cuban-born inhabitants, and thus swelled the force of opposition
against the government. General Lopez was informed of this fact, and
based new hopes upon the circumstance.

The Spanish government, having recalled Roncali, appointed Don Jose de
la Concha captain-general of the island, and the severity of his sway
reminded the inhabitants of the iron rule of Tacon. It was during his
administration that Lopez effected his second landing at Playitas, sixty
miles west of Havana. Several partial insurrections, which had preceded
this event, easily suppressed, as it appears, by the Spanish government,
but exaggerated in the accounts despatched to the friends of Cuba in the
United States, inflamed the zeal of Lopez, and made him believe that the
time for a successful invasion had at length arrived.[9] He was so
confident, at one time, of the determination and ability of the Cubans
alone