“The Cuban deputies and senators are, I believe, very much discontented with the turn things have taken. Several have already gone home, and more are to follow. The affairs of Cuba certainly look ominous, but those who prophesy a general movement for separation there seem to forget that the island is inhabited by two distinct and mutually suspicious races, and that the whites, being of Spanish origin, are as obstinately divided in political sentiment as their kinsmen here. General Grant’s visit to Cuba seems to attract some attention. The Minister for Foreign Affairs asked me about it yesterday. I answered carelessly that I knew nothing more than what I saw in the newspapers; that the same motives no doubt carried the general thither that had carried him to Europe and Asia; that he was also to visit Mexico, a circumstance which I had seen connected by some journalists with an apocryphal movement in that country for annexation to the United States. You can infer what rumors are rife by a question asked me by the Pro-nuncio here, ‘whether negotiations were on foot for a purchase of Cuba by the United States.’ I told him that such a report was very likely to arise from the well-known fact that General Prim when in power had favored such a scheme, and turned the conversation to something else.” Early in 1880, entirely without Lowell’s knowledge or motion, a suggestion from one or two friends, conspiring with the wishes of the State Department at Washington, led to the offer of a transfer from Madrid to London. On 22 January, Lowell wrote to his daughter: “Day before yesterday I was startled with a cipher telegram. My first thought was ‘Row in Cuba--I shall have no end of bother.’ It turned out to be this: ‘President has nominated you to England. He regards it as essential to the public service that you should accept and make your personal arrangements to repair to London as early as may be. Your friends whom I have conferred with concur in this view.’ You see that is in very agreeable terms, and at least shows that Government is satisfied with my conduct here. I was afraid of its effects on mamma at first; but she was pleased, and began at once to contrive how I could accept, which she wished me to do. I answered: ‘Feel highly honored by the President’s confidence. Could accept if allowed two months delay. Impossible to move or leave my wife sooner.’”