The History of Cuba, vol. 3Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
The History of Cuba, vol. 3
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Cuba -- Economic conditions; Cuba -- History
It was impossible, even with the strict censorship which the Spanish
Captain-General maintained over the island, to keep reports of the
stirring events which were taking place from leaking forth into the
outer world. Of course, Lopez and the junta at New York learned of them
through the channels known only to themselves, and the news, spreading
to all parts of the United States, caused tremendous excitement. Great
interest was manifested, particularly in the southern states, and in New
York City, where the members of the Cuban junta had begun to stir up a
considerable amount of interest in and sympathy for the Cubans. The New
York papers dispatched correspondents to obtain the true story of the
rebellion, but the reporters had difficulty in getting into the country,
and encountered still greater obstacles in dispatching what news they
could gather to their respective sheets. They were hampered in their
efforts by Spanish officials and Spanish spies were always at their
heels.
While the main uprising had been in the vicinity of Puerto Principe,
incipient rebellions and sympathetic insurrections occurred in other
parts of the island, which were quickly quelled by overwhelming forces
of Spaniards, and the news of which was confined as much as possible to
the immediate vicinity of the uprisings. At Trinidad a mob assembled on
horseback, crying vengeance on the Spanish oppressors, but they were
soon driven from the city and obliged to take to cover on a densely
wooded hill, where their movements were so hampered by underbrush that
they were perforce compelled to abandon their mounts, and soon
surrendered to superior numbers. It was suspected that the inhabitants
of Havana, or rather the revolutionary sympathizers in that place, were
about to revolt, but the guard was redoubled, the crowd was overawed by
numbers of well armed troops, and the movement, if it ever had been
contemplated, never materialized. However, many of the wealthy
inhabitants, fearing that they might be seized on suspicion of
complicity with the revolutionists, hastily fled to their estates in the
country.
The New York _Herald_, which for a long time had been sympathetically
inclined toward the revolutionary party in Cuba, on July 16, 1851,
printed the following report, which was based on facts gathered by its
correspondent:
"I consider that, in a political point of view, this island was never in
a more critical state than it is at this present moment. The Creoles of
Cuba have at length thrown down the gauntlet of defiance to the
authority of Spain."
This statement was followed by a long account of the engagements between
the revolutionists and the forces of Spain. On July 22 the same paper,
under the guise of reporting conditions, issued what was really a call
of "The United States to the rescue," which in part read as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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