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 to the harbor of Santiago de Cuba. That is an event in world history, one never to be forgotten, and in the countries of Europe quite as generously recognized as by our own people. There is a word to say for the Spanish admiral. In his chivalry after that act of heroism, Cervera proved himself a worthy adversary, who could realize and admire bravery in a foe, even when it had been directed against himself with such signal success. Not every commander would be great enough in that circumstance to send a flag of truce to the opposing admiral, in order to inform him that his brave men were safe and that they were honored as brave men by their captors.

Of another sort was the bravery of Dewey at Manila, more notable in its results but in no other way surpassing that of Hobson and his men. Dewey went forward in spite of unknown dangers of torpedoes, to engage an enemy in the place it had selected as most favorable for Spanish arms, an enemy with more ships, more men, more guns than had the American. A day later the nation was at the feet of Dewey and the United States had taken a position among the powers of the world never before admitted by them. In larger degree than ever before, from that moment the United States became a factor in the international history of the world. At this writing one cannot tell what will be the end of the relations of the United States to the Philippines and the Orient, but the solution cannot fail to be of profit to this nation. This was a holy war for the liberty of Cuba, but like many another good deed it is bringing its additional rewards. Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and the Caroline islands are to be liberated, four colonies of Spain instead of one, and the direct and indirect profit, looked at from a purely commercial basis, will be far more than enough to compensate the United States for the cost of the war. The annexation of the Hawaiian islands as a war measure must be credited to the same cause, for the success of that effort under any other circumstances was problematical.

Yet another sort of bravery was that in the harbor of Cardenas when the little torpedo boat Winslow lay a helpless hulk under the rain of fire from the shore batteries, without rudder or engine to serve, and the Hudson, a mere tugboat with a few little guns on deck, stood by for forty minutes to pass a hawser and tow the disabled vessel out of range. Both were riddled, the Winslow had half her total complement of men killed and wounded by a single shell, but there was no faltering, and they all worked away as coolly as if nothing were happening.

If one started to catalogue the instances of personal bravery that the war brought out in its first few months, the list would be a cumbersome one. It is enough here to say that there have been a hundred times when personal courage was needed to be shown, and never a moment's hesitancy on the part of any man to whom the call came. Furthermore, in every case in which a particularly hazardous undertaking was contemplated, and volunteers were called for, the number offering has been in every instance far more than was needed. This was eminently notable on the occasion of Hobson's sinking of the Merrimac, when more than a thousand in the fleet volunteered for a service requiring but six, and from which it seemed impossible that any could come out alive.

The public must know all about the war, and the only avenue of information is the press. Never before has any war been covered as to its news features with the accuracy and energy which have characterized