Our War With Spain For Cubas Freedom | Page 5

have been perpetrated. The most sensational tales have never reached the limits of the truth.
It is hoped that the reader will find in this volume not only a comprehensive current history of our war with Spain for Cuba's freedom, but also much of the other matter that will be of interest and value in considering the future of the liberated island. Its history, its people, its resources and other salient subjects are included, with certain matter on Spain and her own affairs, with Puerto Rico and the Philippine islands, which chapters serve to make the volume a work for general reference and reading on the whole subject of the war.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.
I. A War for Liberty and Humanity II. How Columbus Found the "Pearl of the Antilles" III. Spain's Black Historical Record IV. Buccaneering in the Spanish Main V. Commercial Development of Cuba VI. Beauties of a Tropical Island VII. Wealth from Nature's Store in the Forest and Fields of Cuba VIII. The Cubans and How They Live IX. Havana, the Island Metropolis X. The Cities of Cuba XI. Mutterings of Insurrection XII. Outbreak of the Ten Years' War XIII. Massacre of the Virginius Officers and Crew XIV. Operations of the Ten Years' War XV. The Peace of Zanjon and Its Violated Pledges XVI. Preparations for Another Rebellion XVII. The Cuban Junta and Its Work XVIII. Key West and the Cubans XIX. Another Stroke for Freedom XX. Jose Marti and Other Cuban Heroes XXI. Desperate Battles with Machete and Rifle XXII. Filibusters from Florida XXIII. Weyler the Butcher XXIV. Cuba Under the Scourge XXV. Fitzhugh Lee to the Front XXVI. Americans in Spanish Dungeons XXVII. Maceo Dead by Treachery XXVIII. Weyler's Reconcentration Policy and Its Horrors XXIX. American Indignation Growing XXX. Outrages on Americans in Cuba XXXI. McKinley Succeeds Cleveland XXXII. The Case of Evangelina Cisneros XXXIII. Work of Clara Barton and the Red Cross XXXIV. The Catastrophe to the Maine XXXV. Patience at the Vanishing Point XXXVI. Events in the American Congress XXXVII. President McKinley Acts XXXVIII. Strength of the Opposing Squadron and Armies XXXIX. Battleships and Troops Begin to Move XL. Diplomatic Relations Terminate XLI. First Guns and First Prizes of the War XLII. Declaration of War XLIII. Call for the National Guard, Our Citizen Soldiery XLIV. Blockade of Cuban Ports XLV. Spanish Dissensions at Home XLVI. The Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Other Colonies of Spain XLVII. Progress of Hostilities XLVIII. Sea Fight off Manila, Americans Victorious XLIX. Hawaii, and Our Annexation Policy L. Continued Success for American Soldiers and Sailors LI. The Invasion of Puerto Rico LII. The Surrender of Manila LIII. Victorious Close of the War LIV. Personal Reminiscences

INTRODUCTION.
When, on the 22d day of April, 1898, Michael Mallia, gun-captain of the United States cruiser Nashville, sent a shell across the bows of the Spanish ship Buena Ventura, he gave the signal shot that ushered in a war for liberty for the slaves of Spain.
The world has never seen a contest like it. Nations have fought for territory and for gold, but they have not fought for the happiness of others. Nations have resisted the encroachments of barbarism, but until the nineteenth century they have not fought to uproot barbarism and cast it out of its established place. Nations have fought to preserve the integrity of their own empire, but they have not fought a foreign foe to set others free. Men have gone on crusades to fight for holy tombs and symbols, but armies have not been put in motion to overthrow vicious political systems and regenerate iniquitous governments for other peoples.
For more than four centuries Spain has held the island of Cuba as her chattel, and there she has revelled in corruption, and wantoned in luxury wrung from slaves with the cruel hand of unchecked power. She has been the unjust and merciless court of last resort. From her malignant verdict there has been no possible appeal, no power to which her victims could turn for help.
But the end has come at last. The woe, the grief, the humiliation, the agony, the despair that Spain has heaped upon the helpless, and multiplied in the world until the world is sickened with it, will be piled in one avalanche on her own head.
Liberty has grown slowly. Civilization has been on the defensive. Now liberty fights for liberty, and civilization takes the aggressive in the holiest war the world has even known.
Never was there a war before in which so many stimulating deeds of bravery were done in such a short time, and this in spite of the fact that the public has been restless for more action. It is almost worth a war to have inscribed such a deed of cool, intelligent heroism as that of Hobson and his men with the Merrimac, in the entrance