Sir Aucland Calvin can certify to this, as it was discussed in the
Viceregal Council."

Just after our Civil War MacIver was interested in another
expedition which also failed. Its members called themselves the
Knights of Arabia, and their object was to colonize an island much
nearer to our shores than New Guinea. MacIver, saying that his
oath prevented, would never tell me which island this was, but the
reader can choose from among Cuba, Haiti, and the Hawaiian
group. To have taken Cuba, the "colonizers" would have had to
fight not only Spain, but the Cubans themselves, on whose side
they were soon fighting in the Ten Years' War; so Cuba may be
eliminated. And as the expedition was to sail from the Atlantic
side, and not from San Francisco, the island would appear to be the
Black Republic. From the records of the times it would seem that
the greater number of the Knights of Arabia were veterans of the
Confederate army, and there is no question but that they intended
to subjugate the blacks of Haiti and form a republic for white men
in which slavery would be recognized. As one of the leaders of this
filibustering expedition, MacIver was arrested by General Phil
Sheridan and for a short time cast into jail.

This chafed the general's spirit, but he argued philosophically that
imprisonment for filibustering, while irksome, brought with it no
reproach. And, indeed, sometimes the only difference between a
filibuster and a government lies in the fact that the government
fights the gun-boats of only the enemy while a filibuster must
dodge the boats of the enemy and those of his own countrymen.
When the United States went to war with Spain there were many
men in jail as filibusters, for doing that which at the time the