He says that in those days its commerce with this country amounted to a
hundred million dollars a year. It maintained an army of twenty thousand
Spanish soldiers, and its harbors were always filled with Spanish
vessels.

Havana was then one of the gayest capitals in the world. Its streets
were thronged with fine carriages, in which the beauties of the island
took their daily drives. At night all the fashion of the city would
congregate on the Plaza in front of the Governor's mansion, and listen
to the music of the military bands.

The people of the island were loyal and obedient to the wishes of the
mother country. They gave up the treasures of the island in return for a
kindly government.

In those days Spain called Cuba the ever-faithful island, because she
was the only American possession of Spain that still remained contented
under the rule of the mother country.

To travellers she seemed an earthly Paradise, and many were the stories
of the beauties of this favored isle.

No one could say enough pleasant things about its light-hearted, kindly
people, its marvellous vegetation, its lovely flowers, its delicious
fruits, and its generous soil in which anything that was planted would
grow.

When we think of Cuba to-day, laid waste by fire and sword, with barren
fields and starving people, we cannot help feeling that the causes must
have been great which led to such a terrible sacrifice.