A coach full of travellers was journeying with the expedition that carried the medicines and provisions.  The Cubans outnumbered the party, and took them all prisoners.  A woman and a little child who were of the party were treated kindly and set at liberty, but every Spanish soldier and every man with the expedition was put to death.

If the Cubans continue to practise these cruelties they will lose the strong sympathy which their bravery has so far gained for them.

Many Spanish soldiers are still deserting to the Cuban lines.  The deserters say that life is unbearable in the Spanish army.  The soldiers are roughly treated, have scarcely anything to eat, and receive their pay in worthless paper money.

One entire battalion mutinied a short while ago, and refused to accept this paper money.  The colonel had to give the soldiers his solemn promise that their pay should be given them half in gold and half in silver before they would consent to return to duty.

It is stated that the sum of $50,000,000 is needed for the payment of the soldiers, and that there is little hope of getting it from Spain, because the Rothschilds will not lend the Government any more money unless Spain sacrifices the income of the famous Almaden quicksilver mines for twenty years.

The Rothschilds are the greatest and richest bankers in the world.

This firm has branch houses in all the great capitals in Europe, and has probably lent money to every government on the continent.

If a war is contemplated, and a nation needs a large sum of ready money to make preparations, it is to the Rothschilds that its government generally turns.

When good security is offered there is never any trouble in getting money from them, but if the security is not of the best they never find themselves in a position to lend the money.

In 1870, Spain, needing money, applied to the Rothschilds and obtained what she needed because she offered as security for the repayment of the loan a lease of the Almaden mines for a term of thirty years.

These mines are said to be the greatest quicksilver mines in the world, and yield an immense profit.

The Rothschilds worked the mines and realized their profits, the Spanish Government receiving a royalty of so much money for each flask of quicksilver sold.

This royalty, in the twenty-six years the bankers have been working the mines, has amounted to thirty-six millions of dollars.

The contract with the Spanish Government expires in 1900, and so when Spain needed money for the Cuban war and applied to the Rothschilds for it, the bankers were very willing to lend it, asking in return that their lease of the mines be extended for another term of twenty years.

This, Spain was unwilling to do.

She had been informed by her engineers that if she could get the control of the mines into her own hands, she could realize a yearly income from them of $6,000,000.