Indulgent reader, I had grown accustomed to think that I should now live and die, and never see any more war, either foreign or domestic, on the part of the United States. All things were running smoothly on the part of our nation, and there hardly appeared the most distant cloud in our peaceful-looking skies. But, as Robert Burns, the famous Scotch poet, most truthfully says, "The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft aglee, and leave us nought but grief and pain for promised joy." In the month of February, 1895, the oppressed and robbed people of Cuba once more raised the standard of rebellion against Spain, and entered upon another struggle with the mother country. The tyrant Spain had broken all the promises she had made at the close of the Ten Years’ Cuban War, in 1878, and thus it came to pass, after an useless truce of seventeen years, that the Cuban leaders once more decided to raise the standard of rebellion against the tyrant, considering it better to die in a war for freedom than to sit down any longer in a state of endless oppression. [Illustration: _GEN. ANTONIO MACEO._] As our own nation had had a fearful war with England, in the days of George Washington—a war that lasted over seven years—all citizens of the United States felt a great deal of sympathy for the Cuban leaders, and for all the Cuban people—"a people who now devoted their lives unto death on the high places of the field"—and myself, my own family, and all my beloved race, felt very, very deeply for them. And not only did the people of the United States, but all lovers of freedom throughout the world felt the greatest sympathy for the Cubans. Thus long, weary months came and went, and poor, proud, decrepit old Spain, in her antiquated way, continued to borrow many millions of money at home and abroad, till at last "Pobre Espagna" (poor Spain) was hardly able to pay the mere interest upon the money she had borrowed, let alone the principal. The patriotic Cubans fought long, well and nobly; so did the Spaniards, but no real advantage was ever gained upon either side, because the Cubans had neither seaport nor fleet, and were never able to get the Spaniards out of their ancient and powerful fortifications, whilst the Spaniards were never able to beat the Cubans off the field, get them out of their strongholds among the mountains, and their inaccessible retreats amidst their grand, primeval forests.