"Meanwhile trade between the United States and Cuba was advancing by leaps and bounds. In 1850 the sum of the Cuban trade into and out of the United States was $20,000,000; in 1880 $76,000,000; in 1894 $105,000,000. American capital became engaged in sugar and other industries. The two countries tried to put their tariffs on a better footing by the Convention of 1884, for the mutual abandonment of discriminating duties; in 1893 Spain accepted reciprocity under the tariff of 1890; but the Cuban authorities evaded the privileges thus conferred, on the ground that they were governed by a special Spanish translation from the English version of the treaty, and not by the original Spanish version; and it was three years before the Home Government could straighten out this petty snarl. "In 1884-5 came some filibustering expeditions; the United States exerted itself to stop them, and there was no Cuban insurrection. On the whole, the years from 1879 to 1894 were freer from diplomatic controversy than any like period since 1845. Meanwhile the Cubans in the United States had accumulated a revolution fund of a million dollars." I have already stated that a network of secret societies has covered Cuba, ever since the beginning of this century. Branches of these mysterious associations have been established in nearly every city on the seaboard of the two Americas, from New York to Buenos Ayres, at Boston, Savanah, Charlestown, Norfolk, Tampa, Kingston (Jamaica), etc. Their headquarters have been established, for some five and forty years, in the American metropolis, and are known as the Gran Junta, or Cuban Revolutionary Agency. From this centre, the rebellion has been mainly worked. It is presided over, at the present time, by Señor Thomaso Estrado Palma, who was born at Bayamo, some sixty-seven years ago, and who for a short time acted as President of the Cuban Republic. He was captured by the Spaniards, and imprisoned for several years. About 1895 he reappeared in New York, as headmaster of a Hispano-American College, and as one of the leading members of the Junta. He is not only thoroughly well aquainted with all the secrets of the rebels, but is also by no means ignorant of the movements of the Spaniards. He bears an eminently respectable character, is a man of considerable literary attainments, and, considering his age, may be described as remarkably active. The New York Junta publishes a bi-weekly paper, entitled _La Patria_, edited by Don Enrique José Varona, who, if I mistake not, is a brother of that Varona who was shot during the affair of the "Virginius." The line of Presidents of the Cuban Republic is still unbroken, and the gentleman who at present fills the position is a man of considerable culture, and, moreover, a wealthy planter, whose estates, however, he has neglected for some years, in order the better to serve his country.