forty-two free colored persons, and fifty-nine slaves.

The project of annexation to the United States was first mooted in 1848, after the proclamation of the French republic. The people of the slave States, in view of the increasing population and the anti-slavery feeling of the North and West were beginning to feel alarmed as to the safety of the "peculiar institution," and there was a strong sentiment among them in favor of annexing Cuba and dividing it up into slave states. President Polk, therefore, authorized the American minister at Madrid to offer one hundred million dollars for Cuba; but the proposition was rejected in the most peremptory manner. A similar proposal was made ten years afterward in the Senate, but after a debate it was withdrawn.

The next conspiracy, rebellion or revolution (it has been called by all these names according to the point of view and the sympathies of those speaking or writing of it) broke out in 1848. It was headed by Narciso Lopez, who was a native of Venezuela, but who had served in the Spanish army, and had attained therein the rank of major-general.

This was of considerable more importance than any of the outbreaks that had preceded it.

The first attempt of Lopez at an insurrectionary movement was made in the centre of the island. It proved to be unsuccessful, but Lopez, with many of his adherents, managed to escape and reached New York, where there were a large number of his sympathizers.

Lopez represented the majority of the Cuban population as dissatisfied with Spanish rule, and eager for revolt and annexation to the United States.

In 1849, with a party small in numbers, he attempted to return to Cuba, but the United States authorities prevented him accomplishing his purpose.

He was undaunted by failure, however, and the following year, he succeeded in effecting another organization and sailed from New Orleans on the steamer Pampero, with a force which has been variously estimated at from three to six hundred men, the latter probably being nearer the truth.

The second in command was W. S. Crittenden, a gallant young Kentuckian, who was a graduate of West Point, and who had earned his title of colonel in the Mexican war.

They landed at Morillo in the Vuelta Abajo. Here the forces were divided; one hundred and thirty under Crittenden remained to guard the supplies, while Lopez with the rest pushed on into the interior.

There had been no disguise in the United States as to the object of this expedition. Details in regard to it had been freely and recklessly published, and there is a lesson to be learned even from this comparatively trivial attempt to obtain freedom as to a proper censorship of the press in time of warfare.

The Spanish government was fully informed beforehand as to all the little army's probable movements. The consequence was that Lopez was surrounded and his whole force captured by the Spanish.

The expected uprising of the Cuban people, by the way, had not taken place.

Hearing no news of his superior officer, Crittenden at first made a desperate attempt to escape by sea, but, being frustrated in this, he took refuge in the woods.

At last he and his little force, now reduced to fifty men, were forced to capitulate.

The United States Consul was asked to interfere in the case of Crittenden, but refused to do so. It was said at the time that there were two reasons for this: First, there was no doubt whatever as to the nature of the expedition, and secondly, the consul, who does not appear to have been particularly brave, was alarmed for his personal safety.

The trial, if trial it can be called, and condemnation followed with the utmost, almost criminal, celerity.

In batches of six, Crittenden and his fifty brave surviving comrades were shot beneath the walls of the fortress of Alara.

When the Spaniards ordered Crittenden, as was the custom, to kneel with his back to the firing party, the heroic young Kentuckian responded:

"No! I will stand facing them! I kneel only to my God!"

It is stated that the bodies of the victims were mutilated in a horrible manner.

There was no inconsiderable number of Cubans who sympathized with Lopez, but, held as they were under a stern leash, they did not dare to intercede for him.

He was garroted at Havana, being refused the honorable death of a soldier. Some others of his comrades were shot, but most of them were transported for life.

The sad fate of Crittenden aroused the greatest indignation and bitterness in the United States, but the tenets of international law forbade anything to be done in the case.

During the administration of President Pierce, there occurred an incident which threatened at one time to lead to hostilities, and which was one of the first of the many incidents that have embittered the United States against Spain as regards its administration of Cuba.

This was the firing on the American steamer, Black Warrior, by a Spanish man-of-war.

The Black Warrior was a steamer owned in New York, and plying regularly between that city and Mobile. It was her custom both on her outward and homeward bound trips to touch always at Havana. The custom laws were then very stringent, and she ought each time to have exhibited a manifest of her cargo. But still this was totally unnecessary, as no portion of her cargo was ever put off at Havana.

She was therefore entered and cleared under the technical term of "in ballast." This was done nearly thirty times with full knowledge and consent of the Spanish revenue officers; and, moreover the proceeding was in accordance with a general order of the Cuban authorities.

But in February, 1850, the steamer was stopped and fired upon in the harbor of Havana. The charge brought against her was that she had an undeclared cargo on board. This cargo was confiscated, and a fine of twice its value imposed. The commander of the vessel, Captain Bullock, refused to pay the fine, and declared that the whole proceeding was "violent, wrongful and in bad faith."

But, obtaining no redress, he hauled down his colors, and, carrying them away with him, left the vessel as a Spanish capture. With his crew and passengers, he made his way to New York, and reported the facts to the owners.

The latter preferred a claim for indemnity of three hundred thousand dollars. After a tedious delay of five years, this sum was paid, and so the matter ended.

The affair of the Black Warrior was one of the cases that led to the celebrated Ostend Conference.

This conference was held in 1854 at Ostend and Aix-la-Chapelle by Messrs. Buchanan, Mason and Soule, United States ministers at London, Paris and Madrid, and resulted in what is known as the Ostend manifesto.

The principal points of this manifesto were as follows:

"The United States ought if possible to purchase Cuba with as little delay as possible.

"The probability is great that the government and Cortes of Spain will prove willing to sell it because this would essentially promote the highest and best interests of the Spanish people.

"The Union can never enjoy repose nor possess reliable securities as long as Cuba is not embraced within its boundaries.

"The intercourse which its proximity to our coast begets and encourages between them (the inhabitants of Cuba) and the citizens of the United States has, in the progress of time, so united their interests and blended their fortunes that they now look upon each other as if they were one people and had but one destiny.

"The system of immigration and labor lately organized within the limits of the island, and the tyranny and oppression which characterize its immediate rulers, threaten an insurrection at every moment which may result in direful consequences to the American people.

"Cuba has thus become to us an unceasing danger, and a permanent cause for anxiety and alarm.