Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material at the Internet Archive.) [Illustration: book's cover] [Illustration: map of Cuba] CUBA ITS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE BY A. D. HALL [Illustration: colophon] NEW YORK STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS 81 FULTON STREET Copyrighted 1898 By STREET & SMITH. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE. I.--Discovery and Early History 7 II.--The British Occupation--Spain's Gratitude 19 III.--Cuba's Early Struggles for Liberty 30 IV.--The Ten Years' War 43 V.--The Virginius Embroglio 59 VI.--Again Spain's Perfidy 67 VII.--Some Cuban Heroes 73 VIII.--Cuban Tactics 84 IX.--Weyler the Butcher 92 X.--The Crime of the Century 102 XI.--Two Methods of Warfare; The Spanish and the Cuban 110 XII.--The Butcher's Campaign 122 XIII.--America's Charity and Spain's Diplomacy 132 XIV.--The Last Days of Peace 144 XV.--The Topography and Resources of Cuba 154 XVI.--What Will the Future Be? 170 CUBA ITS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE CHAPTER I. DISCOVERY AND EARLY HISTORY. "The goodliest land that eye ever saw, the sweetest thing in the world." Such was Columbus' opinion of Cuba, just after he first beheld it, and, after the lapse of four hundred years, the words, making due allowance for the hyperbole of enthusiasm, still hold good. And this, too, in spite of all the trials and tribulations which the fair "Pearl of the Antilles" has been forced to undergo at the hands of her greedy and inhuman masters. The eyes of all the world are now upon this indescribably beautiful and fertile country. Like Andromeda, she has been shuddering and gasping in the power of a monster, but at last a Perseus has come to her rescue. Somewhat tardily perhaps the United States, united now in every meaning of the word, has from pure philanthropy embraced her cause--the United States whose watchword, with a sturdy hatred of the oppressor, has ever been and always will be "freedom." The star of hope, symbolized by the lone star upon the Cuban flag, and so long concealed by gloomy, threatening clouds, is now shining clear and bright; and all civilization is waiting with happy confidence for the day, God willing not far distant, when "Cuba Libre" shall be not only an article of creed, but an established fact.