Under the influence of the spirit of freedom which was spreading all around them, Cubans became more and more restless. The revolutionary movements in Spanish America had begun in 1810, and after fourteen years of guerrilla warfare, European power had vanished in the Western hemisphere from the Northern boundary of the United States to Cape Horn, except for the Colonies of British Honduras and the Guianas, and a few of the West Indian Islands. In 1821, Santo Domingo became independent, and in the same year Florida came into the possession of the United States. Secret societies, with the purpose of revolution as their motive, began to spring up in Cuba, and the population divided into well-defined factions. There was indeed an attempt at open revolt made in 1823 by one of these societies known as the "Soles De Bolivar," but it was averted before the actual outbreak came, and those leaders of it who were not able to escape from Cuba were arrested and punished. It was as a result of these successive events that the office of Captain General was created and invested with all the powers of Oriental despotism. The functions of the Captain General were defined by a royal decree of May 28, 1825, to the following effect: His Majesty, the King Our Lord, desiring to obviate the inconveniences that might in extraordinary cases result from a division of command, and from the interferences and prerogatives of the respective officers; for the important end of preserving in that precious island his legitimate sovereign authority and the public tranquillity through proper means, has resolved in accordance with the opinion of his council of ministers to give to your Excellency the fullest authority, bestowing upon you all the powers which by the royal ordinances are granted to the governors of besieged cities. In consequence of this, his Majesty gives to your Excellency the most ample and unbounded power, not only to send away from the island any persons in office, whatever their occupation, rank, class, or condition, whose continuance therein your Excellency may deem injurious, or whose conduct, public or private, may alarm you, replacing them with persons faithful to his Majesty and deserving of all the confidence of your Excellency; but also to suspend the execution of any order whatsoever, or any general provision made concerning any branch of the administration as your Excellency may think most suitable to the Royal Service. This decree since that time has been substantially the supreme law of Cuba, and has never been radically modified by any concessions except those given as a last and lingering effort to preserve the sovereignty of Spain, when after three years' progress of the revolution she realized that her colony had slipped away from her authority. The decree quoted in itself offers sufficient justification for the Cuban revolution in the name of liberty. ATTEMPTED ANNEXATION TO THE UNITED STATES.