against him here. I think him excellent man, but in unfortunate position. Three serious combats reported within a week; in each insurgents victorious.
Mr. Lee to Mr. Day.
[Confidential.]
No. 775.]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a letter, with its translation, signed by the insurgent commander in chief and addressed to the President of the United States. The said letter was delivered by a messenger, who at once departed, before I saw or had any communication with him.
I an, etc.
Consul-General.
[Inclosure in No. 775.—Translation.]
William McKinley,
President of the United States.
Sir: The heroic Cuban people possesses, as a characteristic quality of its moral being and developed to a high degree, one of the most noble sentiments, namely, gratitude; whoever has done well for Cuba wins for himself forever the lively recognition of the sons of Cuba's soil.
Your great people have given to the whole world an example of lofty virtue, and to the shame and stain of Spain, not only has it shown compassion before the great misfortunes brought on Cuba by the ferocious Spanish policy, but has extended a helping hand to the unhappy victims of the warfare carried on by the army of that nation.
The gratitude of this people must be on a par with that great and generous impulse, and if Cuba, by its geographical position and the necessity of its commercial existence, is called to maintain, once that it is free, and for the mutual benefit of both countries, Closer relations with your great republic than with any other nation whatever, from this day forward Cuba will consider herself bound by a closer tie in the affection it bears for the noble American magnanimity.
However true and minute may be the reports that you have heard, never will you be able to form a just conception of all the bloodshed, the misery, the ruin and the sorrow caused to afflicted Cuba, to obtain her independence, and how the despotic spirit of Spain, irritated to the last degree before the most just of all rebellions, has revelled in the most implacable destruction of everything, lives and property. The nation which at one time accepted the inquisition and invented its tortures lastly conceived the concentration scheme, the most horrible of all means, first to martyrize and then to annihilate an entire people, and if it has stopped in the path of destruction it is due in great measure to the cry of indignation which the knowledge of such horrors unanimously drew from the States over which you govern.
The people who are saved from extinction and whose evils your gifts assuage are the people for whose liberty we daily shed our blood on the fields of battle; the country whose independence we now conquer at the point of the sword for them is also for us; blood of our blood and flesh of our flesh, we must rejoice with them in their joys as we weep and sympathize with them in their sorrows and grief.
Be not surprised, then, that as the general in chief of this Cuban army I am so deeply moved at the wave of compassion which agitates your noble country, and that I accede to the requests of the patriots I command to appear before you, the representative of the great nation, as the exponent of our immense gratitude.
I have, therefore, sir, to fulfill a conscientious duty by setting forth a fact, which I beg you will please transmit to the knowledge of the persons to whom is recommended the philanthropic mission of succoring the unhappy destitute Cubans, and in order that ignorance of certain antecedents may not deprive many needy ones of the enjoyment of that noble American charity.
The revolution, as absolute master of the country, has never prohibited any citizen, whatever his nationality, from earning his living, and it has happened that as soon as the barbarous concentration decree was derogated innumerable families have left and still leave the city for the field, impelled by hunger to wrest from the