cat-rigged boat, with which he made trips when
occasion offered between some point on the southern coast of Oriente and
the island of Jamaica. On these trips, both from Nassau and Jamaica,
were carried not only letters and communications of all sorts but also
important supplies of medicines, surgical instruments, and other small
articles which were often of indispensable value. The service was
therefore of the greatest possible value to the Cubans, and it was
arduous and perilous to those who rendered it. It was performed,
however, without remuneration or compensation of any kind, save the
satisfaction of aiding the patriot cause. The Cuban revolution had no
money with which to pay salaries, but all men served for the sake of
Cuba Libre.

The attitude of the people of Cuba toward the revolution, so far as at
this early date they knew what was going on, was varied according to
their occupations, interests and relationships. The professional
classes, the lawyers, physicians, educators, men of letters and others,
for the most part wished for complete separation from Spain, and aided
the cause of independence with their money and their influence. There
were, however, some of them, including not a few of the most estimable
and most patriotic men on the island, whose faith was not able to
forecast victory. They saw on the side of the Cubans lack of money, lack
of arms and ammunition, and lack of that direct connection with the
outer world which was indispensable for support; and on the side of
Spain plenty of money, equipment and communications, and an army of
200,000 trained soldiers thrown into a territory about the size of the
State of Pennsylvania, together with an inflexible resolution never to
surrender the island but to suppress every insurrection at no matter
what cost. It was surely not strange that they regarded such odds as too
formidable to be overcome, by even the most ardent and self-sacrificing
patriotism, and therefore thought that the course of greater wisdom
would be to persuade, compel or otherwise prevail upon Spain to bestow
upon the island a genuine and satisfactory measure of autonomy.

The merchants and commercial classes very largely consisted of
Spaniards, a fact which sufficiently indicates their attitude. They were
not only resolutely committed against the revolution, and indeed against
autonomy, but they were almost incredibly bitter against the Cuban
Independence party. It was from those classes