d
who had opposed him in public print more strongly than any other man,
saw immediately the possibility of riding into power as the man of the
hour, as the real, dominating force of the republic, and as the only
man, as he expressed it, able to save the electoral campaign from
becoming one of protracted discord and dispute. So he forbade Dr. Zayas
to go to the town where the election was to be held, or to accept
General Nunez's invitation, and stated that he was himself tired of the
whole thing, and that he was going to take his yacht and go on a fishing
trip, which he did, leaving at midnight with about thirty trusted
friends, including all of the prominent Liberal leaders. Passing around
Cape San Antonio, the yacht anchored off the coast near Tunas de Zaza,
and there met a group of men by previous arrangement, and started a
revolution or a "popular uprising," as he termed it, against the Menocal
government.

In the meantime, a carefully laid plot, that had been planned months
before, for seizing control of the armed forces of the island was put
into execution. On Saturday night, February 14, 1917, without warning,
two companies of men stationed at the Columbia barracks, at a previously
arranged signal of two shots, jumped from their beds, grabbed their arms
and ammunition, and started across the parade ground for the open
country, of the west. Although the details of this plot were known,
other loyal companies at the command of their officers were called into
immediate action, charged the Liberals and captured more than half of
them and killed a few of the remainder, who at first had succeeded in
escaping. This was the only apparent disloyalty in the western end of
the island. Matanzas, Pinar del Rio and Havana remained loyal to the
government. Among the forces stationed at the City of Santiago, far
removed from the immediate control of the commanding generals of the
army, seeds of sedition, which consisted largely of promises of
immediate promotion of all officers, were planted. Every sergeant was to
be made a captain, every captain a colonel, every lieutenant a major,
with promises of increased pay, and the incidental rewards that come to
the successful revolutionist. This was also true of the Province of
Camaguey, where, at almost the same hour that the uprising took place in
Camp Columbia barracks, several companies of men seized control, made
prisoners of their comrades who were loyal to the government or shot
t