Sir--I wonder how you dare to write me again about terms of peace when you know that Cubans and Spaniards can never be at peace on the soil of Cuba. You represent on this continent an old and discredited monarchy. We are fighting for an American principle, the same as that of Bolivar and Washington. You say we belong to the same race and invite me to fight against a foreign invader, but you are mistaken again, for there are no differences of races and blood. I only believe in one race, mankind, and for me there are but good and bad nations, Spain so far having been a bad one and the United States performing in these movements toward Cuba a duty of humanity and civilization. From the wild, tawny Indian to the refined, blond Englishman, a man for me is worthy of respect according to his honesty and feelings, no matter to what country or race he belongs or what religion he professes. So are nations for me, and up to the present I have had only reasons for admiring the United States. I have written to President McKinley and General Miles thanking them for American intervention in Cuba. I don't see the danger of our extermination by the United States, to which you refer in your letter. If it be so, history will judge. For the present I have to repeat that it is too late for any understanding between my army and yours. Your obedient servant, MAXIMO GOMEZ. ONE RACE--MANKIND. The reply of Gomez to Blanco will live in history. Blanco's strange appeal to the Cuban general was characteristic of a Spaniard. It would seem that an intelligent man would not have made such an appeal, well knowing that it would be useless. For three years Gomez had waged what to many seemed to be a hopeless fight. After these years of sacrifice he obtained the United States as an ally, an acquisition that assured him of final success. Under these circumstances Blanco, the representative of the forces against which Gomez had been contending, appealed to Gomez to join with him in an effort to repel the United States forces. Such an appeal under the circumstances, in view of the fact that Blanco was regarded as an intelligent man, showed the Spaniard to be incapable of appreciating the sentiments which prompted a people to maintain a struggle for liberty. General Blanco based his appeal upon the claim that the Cuban and the Spaniard belonged to the same race and worshiped at the same shrine. He sought to stir up within Gomez' breast racial and religious prejudices, and went so far as to suggest that in the event Gomez united his forces with those of Blanco, Spain would give liberty to Cuba, and would "open her arms to another new daughter of the nations of the new world who speak her language, profess her religion and feel in their veins the noble Spanish blood."