ril 4, 1869, Count Valmaseda, the Spanish Commandant
of that district, issued the following proclamation:

1. Every man, from the age of fifteen years upward, found away from his
place of habitation, who does not prove a justified reason therefor, will
be shot.

2. Every unoccupied habitation will be burned by the troops.

3. Every habitation from which no white flag floats, as a signal that its
occupants desire peace, will be reduced to ashes.

In the summer of 1869, the United States essayed a reconciliation and
an adjustment of the differences between the contestants. To this Spain
replied that the mediation of any nation in a purely domestic question was
wholly incompatible with the honor of Spain, and that the independence of
Cuba was inadmissible as a basis of negotiation. Heavy reinforcements were
sent from Spain, and the strife continued. The commerce of the island
was not greatly disturbed, for the reason that the great producing and
commercial centres lay to the westward, and the military activities were
confined, almost exclusively, to the eastern and central areas. In April,
1874, Mr. Fish, then Secretary of State, reported that "it is now more than
five years since the uprising (in Cuba) and it has been announced with
apparent authority, that Spain has lost upward of 80,000 men, and has
expended upward of $100,000,000, in efforts to suppress it; yet the
insurrection seems today as active and as powerful as it has ever been."
Spain's losses among her troops were not due so much to the casualties of
war as they were to the ravages of disease, especially yellow fever. The
process, in which both parties would appear to be about equally culpable,
of destroying property and taking life when occasion offered, proceedings
which are hardly to be dignified by the name of war, continued until the
beginning of 1878. Throughout the entire period of the war, the American
officials labored diligently for its termination on a basis that would give
fair promise of an enduring peace. Many questions arose concerning the
arrest of American citizens and the destruction of property of American
ownership. Proposals to grant the Cubans the rights of belligerents were
dismissed as not properly warranted by the conditions, and questions
arose regarding the supply of arms and ammunition, from this country, by
filibustering expeditions. References to Cuban affairs appear in many
presidential messages, and the matter was a subject of