A STERN CHASE. 207 long continuance was largely the result of the eeries of civil wars andrevolutions in the mother country, which made it impossible for the Madrid Government to deal effectually with the disturbances on the other side of the Atlantic.

empty. Bulwarks, cabin fittings, even the decks, were torn up with axe and crowbar and sawn into pieces to feed the furnaces, and engine grease and oil were poured into the sinking fires. At last the stores of provisions were hoisted on deck, casks were broachedand cases broken, and hams and bacon were sent down into the stoke-hold to feed the fire. It was hoped that in the night they might give the gunboat the slip, but when the sun at last rose over the sea, there was the Tornado still holding on the chase like a sleuth-hound. To the south-west the blue mountains of Jamaica were showing up well over the horizon. Safety was in sight;but it was too late. The fires werelow,the steam-pressure in the boilers was sinking every moment;the Tornado wasclosing steadilyonher victim.

The insurrection received not a little support from sympathisers in the United States, and there was one terrible incident which might well have led to armed intervention by the Washington Government, and thus anticipated by twenty-five years the crisis of 1898. In the autumn of1873 the Cuban insurrectionary committeeat New York had purchased a smallswift steamer of about tons, called the Virginius, whichhad been built inEngland to be used as a blockade-runner during theAmerican civil war. Captain Fry, aSoutherner,whohad distinguished himselfinthedefenceof Mobile against Farragut, wasput incommand of her, and in October she leftNew York for Kingston in Jamaica,having on board a cargo of rifles and ammunition for Cuba. At Kingston the Virginius coaled and took on board some horses, and a party of Cubansand Cubansympathisers,numbering 160 in all, and including Generals Pedro Cespedes, del Sol, Varona,Alfaro,*and Washington Ryan — the last being an Irish-American who had taken service with the insurgents. In fact, Kingston was made the base of operations for an important filibustering expedition under the United States flag.

Then there was a hurried, anxious council held by the weary, despairing men who had toiled in vain through the long day and night. Varona proposed that, rather than be taken, the ship should be blown up. There was still enoughpowder onboard to do it ; or the safetyvalves might be locked, and the furnaces fed to explode the boilers. Anything was better than falling into the hands of the Spaniards. But Captain Fry overruled this desperate counsel. His papers were in orde?, he said. There were no longer any arms on board. If he hadbeen taken in the act of landing the expedition,there would be legal proof of filibustering, but as matters stood they could make a good defence before aprizecourt; and as they flew the Stars and Stripes, they could count upon American intervention to defend them if things came to the worst. He proposed, therefore, that they should surrender and take their chance. This opinion was accepted by the rest, and the Virginius slowed down, while the Tornado ran up alongside of her. A Spanish prize-crew was put on board, and the gunboat towed the steamer slowly back to Cuba and brought her into the land-locked harbour of Santiago.

Although theBritish colonialauthorities were completely hoodwinked as to what was in progress, the Spanish consul at Kingston received through a spy or traitor exact information as to what the Cuban refugees were doing, and he sent to General Burriel, who was in command of the Spanish forces inEastern Cuba, a warning of what was coming. In the last week of October the Virginiusleft Kingston,and Burriel, who was at Santiago de Cuba, sent out the Spanish gunboat Tornado to intercept her. On the morningofOctober 31st the gunboat sighted the filibuster, and the Virginius at once headed back for Jamaica, with the Tornado in chase. It was soon evident that the Tornado was a quick boat, and to lighten his ship Captain Fry threw overboard cases of rifles and cartridges, till at last most of the cargo was gone. Hour after hour the two steamers ploughed their way through the blue waters, in a desperate race for life or death. Night came on, and still the chase continued. But soon after midnight the terrible discovery was made that the coal bunkers of the Virginius were almost On the very day of their arrival a courtmartial sat onboard the Tornado for the trial of the five Cuban generals. All were promptly found guilty of filibustering and condemned to death. Byill-luck a breakdownof the telegiaph cable prevented General Burnel and the local Spanish authorities from receiving a message from Castelar,then in power at Madrid,ordering a suspension of proceedings. Within a few hours of their sentence thegenerals werelanded.

to be shot by firing parties of Spanish marines