Almost the first thing the Governor said to me at our first meeting at Baire Arriba, was: "I have been wishing for months that I could get hold of an American newspaper man to show him the inside of the revolution. The American people don't know how strong we are. They have no way of finding out. Now I will show you our civil government as it is in operation." We visited the medical posts--"drug-stores" as the Cubans call them--the tanneries, workshops, and the various officials, including the tax-collector. Supplementary to the regular lines of civic routine are other branches of organization necessitated by the war. The most important of these is that of the tax-collector. The State tax-collector has as many subordinate officers as the Governor. Taxes are levied on those engaged in commercial pursuits. This commerce is, of course, only internal. The levying of taxes and the subsequent shipment of Spanish money to the United States for use by the Junta has created great scarcity of money among the insurgents. The schedule in effect when I was with chief tax-collector Tomas Pedro Grinan, in February, was as follows: Coffee and cocoa 4 pesos per 100 pounds. Timber 8 " " 1000 feet. Hemp 4 " " 100 pounds. Wax 4 " " 100 pounds. Honey 1 peso per 100 pounds. Cattle 3 pesos per head. Cheese 2 " " 100 pounds. Bananas .03 peso per bunch. Tobacco (leaf) 5 pesos per 100 pounds. The commerce consists of the exchange of the products of one part of the island with those of another. I once saw Cespedes stop a coffee merchant, and, upon his inability to produce a receipt for the tax on the coffee he was transporting, take into custody him and twelve little pack-mules. The man pleaded that there was no tax-collector in the vicinity when he started on his journey, paid his fine, which I think was thirty pesos, and continued his march with a receipt for taxes. Four important branches of the government of the Republic of Cuba are the territorial guard, the coast inspection, the postal service, and the workshop system. Each prefectura has under its supervision ten armed territorial guards, who serve also as police. These guards scout the Spanish columns when they venture from their blockhouses. Every district with a seacoast has a civil coast inspector, who ranks as a captain in the army. He is assisted by a sub-inspector, who acts as his secretary. The inspectors have established along the coast line and in every bay and inlet watch posts, commanded each by a vigilant, who has under him eight or ten coast-guards. In this way, when a Spanish man-of-war sets out from a port, the news is signalled along the coast, and the Cubans, if she be in sight of the land, watch every movement of the ship. The coast-guards have captured many small Spanish sailing vessels.