. The storied West Indies . or the Havanese, forthe city was cleansed of its impurities, the ravages ofthe endemic fevers were checked, and commerce, un-restricted by arbitrary laws, swelled to unwontedproportions. The next year England gave up her dearlybought possession in exchange for Florida, and it1has come about that, in the providence of God, theblood of the American colonists was not shed in vainafter all; for one hundred and twenty-six years latertheir descendants marched into Havana withoutthe direct loss of a life or the firing of a gun. Beforethe end of December, 1898, the island h
. The storied West Indies . or the Havanese, forthe city was cleansed of its impurities, the ravages ofthe endemic fevers were checked, and commerce, un-restricted by arbitrary laws, swelled to unwontedproportions. The next year England gave up her dearlybought possession in exchange for Florida, and it1has come about that, in the providence of God, theblood of the American colonists was not shed in vainafter all; for one hundred and twenty-six years latertheir descendants marched into Havana withoutthe direct loss of a life or the firing of a gun. Beforethe end of December, 1898, the island had beencleared of Spanish troops, and all its provinces, cities,towns, and forts were in American hands, to be heldin trust for the Cubans until a stable governmentshould be established. The loss to Spain of a colony which had beenhers for four hundred years impels us to seek areason for this momentous event. In a word, it wascruelty. From the very first the Spaniards treatedtheir American subjects with unprecedented sever-. SANTIAGO AND HAVANA 201 ity: at the outset the unfortunate Indians, then theirsuccessors the native-born settlers. All the WestIndian islands, particularly Cuba and Puerto Rico,have been considered merely fields for the exer-cise of official rapacity and extortion, treated as con-quered provinces. The result has been a conditionof unrest, which has shown itself in numerous re-bellions and filibustering expeditions. The most ex-tensive rebellion was that known as the Ten YearsWar (1868-78), and which, after terrible crueltieshad been perpetrated, was brought to an end by atreaty, which was perfidiously violated by Cubans did not obtain those concessions towhich their valor had entitled them, and seven-teen years later, in 1895, inevitable war again brokeout and ravaged the island. The leaders wereGomez, Garcia, and Maceo, and they pursued thesame tactics as in the previous war, rarely comingto close quarters with the enemy, but carrying on aguerril
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