TO CRUSH THE REBELS. 211 the disturbances were merely the acts of a handful of brigands and marauders, and had no importance. But it was soon evident that the Government had to deal with an organised insurrection,led by men who knew the secrets of guerilla warfare. General Jose' Lachambre, the commandant of the Cabanas fortress at Havana,was namedmilitary governor of Eastern Cuba, and troops were hurried from the capital to Santiagoand Holguin. Then came an outbreak nearSanta Clara; then there was fighting in the Matanzas district, close to the capital. Telegraphs were cut, railway lines were torn up, isolated posts of police or gendarmes were attacked, and armed bands levied contributions in the name of the Cuban Republic. Then there were insurgent columns in the field in the Pinar del Rio district, in the extreme west. The plan of the exiles had been to land a group of leaders with arms and ammunition at point after point from east to west, thus gradually lighting up the flame of rebellion through the whole length of the island.

It was a strange. warfare. There were no battles. At most there was now and then a skirmish dignified with thename. The Spanish troops could no more..hunt down the rebels than they could.pursue a swarm of flies. If hard pressed, a band woulddisperse andhideits arms in friendly quarters,, only to reassemble when the tired soldiersretiredto the town they garrisoned. And when the rains began these long marches against an enemy, who appeared nowhere, now there,always to disappear when thechase seemedhottest,meant feverand death for half the unfortunate soldiers that were sent into the field badly equipped, poorly fed, and unprovided with transport or hospital. It was in vainCalleja reported to Madrid that the insurrection was at an end. It gave toomuch evidence of its existence for even the most optimistic to believe the tale that it was mere isolatedbrigandage.So theGovernment decided to sendtoCubathe manwhohadpacifieditseventeenyears before,and MarshalMartinez Campos was sent out to Havana as Governor-General.

CHAPTER V.

HOW MARTINEZ CAMPOS FAILED. ON April 2,1895, MarshalMartinez Campos sailed from Cadiz for Cuba. He was accompaniedby General Valdez, the commandant of the Military Schoolof Madrid, whom he hadchosen forhischief of the staff. With him went 200 special sen-iceofficers, and 7,000picked troops were embarked as a first reinforcement, the vanguard of the 200,000 men whom Spain sent tothe West Indies in the next three years. If Martinez Campos had been returningfrom a great victory- he could not have been greeted withmoreenthusiasm than that which marked his journey from Madrid to Cadiz, and his arrival at Havana. He had been given very large powers by the Government, and he hoped by a judicious mixture of conciliation and repression to put an end to the rebellion in the course ofhis first year at Havana.

Cuba. At the same time the fleetin theWest Indies was reinforced with several cruisers and gunboats in order to watch the coasts and prevent the arrival of fresh parties of filibusters and fresh supplies of arms. In April, stay-athome peopleinSpain were talking of the rapid campaign in which Martinez Campos would sweep away the rebels. But as weeks and months went by without news of the coming victory, they began to ask each other when he was going to begin. Spaniards who had been to Cuba understood the meaning of the delay. The summer rains had begun,and campaigning was all but impossible. There are few wellmaderoads inCuba, and even these are hardly fit for wheeled traffic in the rainy season. The beatentracks, that take the place of roadsin the greater part of the country, become stretches of soft mud where a horse sinks above his knees, and a man on foot leaves his shoes sticking in the gluey soil. Transport is out of thequestion. Not a round of ammunition, not a bit of food, can be carried except on the belts and shoulders of the men. Stretchers and ambulance waggons must be left behind, and the sick and wounded There wereabout 20,000 Spanish regulars and 14,000 volunteers in Cuba when the revolution broke out; 14,000 more were sent out from Spain in the first two months. Then every week saw new shiploads of conscripts embarking at Cadiz and Cartagena, so that by the end of the summer Spain had some 70,000 men in