ry to provoke
insurrections against the American administration. But all such things
met with no encouragement from General Gomez or from any of the real
leaders of the Cuban people, who expressed the fullest confidence in the
good faith of the United States and did their utmost to lead the nation
to take advantage of the unparalleled opportunity which had been placed
before it. Day by day the magnitude of that opportunity became more
apparent, as did the practical beneficence of the American
administration.

CHAPTER IX

American occupation of Cuba, formal and complete, did not begin, as we
have seen, until January 1, 1899, when the ceremonial transfer of
sovereignty was effected at Havana. But nearly six months before that
epochal date actual occupation and administration was begun on an
extensive scale and in a most auspicious manner. With singular
appropriateness this was effected at that city which nearly four
centuries before had been the first capital and metropolis of the
island, and in that Province which had been the scene of the first
Spanish settlements in Cuba and which had been more perhaps than all the
rest of the island the scene and the base of operations of the
revolution for independence.

The surrender of Santiago by General Toral on July 17, 1898, made the
American army master of that city and practically of the Province of
Oriente. Having the power and authority of government, the Americans had
necessarily to assume the full responsibility of it; and this was
promptly done. Even in advance of the date named, on July 13, the day
after negotiations for the capitulation began, in anticipation of what
was to occur President McKinley decreed that, pending further orders,
existing Spanish laws should be maintained in the occupied territory. As
soon as the protocol was signed on August 12, General Henry W. Lawton
was appointed Military Governor of the Province of Oriente and commander
in chief of the American forces. This was an honor due to that gallant
officer, because of his leadership in the act of invasion and conquest.
But Lawton was a soldier rather than an administrator, and his services
were indispensable in the field. Accordingly, after brief but most
honorable occupancy of the governorship, he was succeeded on September
24 by a man who combined the qualities of soldier and administrator in a
uniquely successful and triumphant degree, and whose advent in Cuba was
auspicious of inestim