The American Church Missionary Society ' 
 
 ADVENT 1900 
 
 CHURCH MISSIONS HOUSE, 
 
 281 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY. 
 
The Mission in Cuba, 
 
 In another pamphlet we publish an autobiographical sketch of the Rev. 
 Pedro Duarte, and in that may be read the story of the earlier Missionary 
 work in Cuba. This brief narrative begins with the close of the late war 
 and the occupation of the island by the American troops, when a resump¬ 
 tion of Missionary work was made possible. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Duarte, with his family, returned to. Matanzag in December, 
 1898, and he at once resumed work in that city. His chapel had been a 
 refuge for the reconcentrados, dead bodies had lain for days in his vestry, 
 and the building was desolated. At comparatively small cost the chapel 
 and parsonage were restored and reoccupied. Mr. Duarte immediately 
 made the influence of his strong character and work felt, and soon acquired 
 prominence and weight in the community. A school was inaugurated, and 
 Senor Pedro R. Someillan and Sefiorita Mercedes Acosta were secured to 
 assist the Missionary. At once this enterprise was successful, and in a short 
 time the capacity of the building and the force was reached. 
 
 That influence has now grown to even remarkable proportions. At the 
 formal occupation of Matanzas by Gen. Wilson, he (Mr. Duarte) was depu¬ 
 tized to hoist the American flag, and, at the request of the citizens, delivered 
 the address of welcome. A bit later, when his mother “fell on sleep,” he 
 was able to get permission to bury her in the cemetery, the first Protestant 
 burial, we believe, ever had in a Cuban cemetery ; and last Fall, when 
 eighty of the Cuban soldier dead were reinterred in the cemetery, Mr. 
 Duarte and the Rev. Mr. Moreno, our Missionary in Bolondron, headed a 
 procession of twenty thousand Cubans and buried these soldiers with our 
 Office for the Burial of the Dead. Lately he and Senor Someillan have 
 been requested to become members of the City Council. From time to 
 time Mr. Duarte has visited neighboring points, and always with success, 
 developing opportunities wherever he has gone. Only lack of means has 
 prevented their further occupation. 
 
 His chapel in Matanzas, while too small for his work, is an attractive 
 house of worship, his parsonage a pleasant home, his school has some 180 
 children in it, and of the improvement seen in them too much can not be 
 said. The visitor sees at once the unmistakable presence of inspiration, and 
 of that inspiration which is from without and above. Christ shows in the 
 faces, the manners, and the appearance of these children. The work in 
 Matanzas has been a splendid Christian work. 
 
 Last Autumn, at Mr. Duarte’s instance, an Orphanage was established in 
 
4 
 
 Matanzas. A fair building was bought adapted to its new purpose, well 
 equipped, and fifteen children were placed in it. This number has now 
 been increased to fifty, who are being well cared for. We quote the follow¬ 
 ing letter in testimony of this good work : 
 
 “ I spent last Sunday (January 28th) in Matanzas. The Orphanage is the 
 cleanest, most homelike, and the best equipped institution of its kind that I 
 have seen in Cuba. The little white beds were particularly attractive to 
 me. The fact that they are entirely made of iron makes them the best beds 
 for Cuba that could possibly be found. I was delighted with them and 
 with the table furniture. The children seemed more refined than in any 
 Orphanage I had seen before, and are certainly better clothed and neater 
 in appearance than it has been possible to acomplish with the great number 
 of children and with the means at command in Cienfuegos. I do not see 
 how so much has been accomplished in so short a time. It must be because 
 the Church and the school have prepared the way for the Orphanage. It 
 was a great satisfaction to me to see the work in Matanzas, and I cannot 
 praise it too highly. “ Very sincerely yours, 
 
 (Signed) “Annie M. Reed.” 
 
 In the later days of last year he must needs say “ Adios ” to his daughter, 
 as in the earlier days he had said it to his mother, his “ right hand,” he said 
 she was. God called her to Himself. She had been a faithful and devoted 
 co-worker in her father’s mission, and so it was that when the Orphanage 
 was opened, by resolution of the Executive Committee, it was named, in 
 commemoration of her, “Palmira Duarte,” and her works follow her. 
 
 In that portion of Havana known as the Tesus del Monte, Sefior Jose R. 
 Pena, our lay-reader, managed to maintain his service through the entire 
 war, the only Protestant service, we believe, had on the island during that 
 period. 
 
 There was no break, therefore, in this service, and the Society immedi¬ 
 ately came to his assistance. His influence and his congregation have 
 steadily grown, and there is good reason to believe that here we have the 
 good beginning of a permanent Church structure. Sefior Pefia is now a 
 candidate for Holy Orders.* 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Neilson, in January, 1899, at the request of the Society, 
 went to Havana, and during the earlier portions of that year reorganized, 
 as perhaps no one else could have done, the congregation on the Prado, 
 especially among the English-speaking people. In the next month the 
 the Rev. W. H. McGee was sent to assist him and to assume charge of this 
 work upon Dr. Neilson’s return to the United States. Mr. McGee, with 
 much discretion and energy, pushed the work set in motion by Dr. Neil¬ 
 son, and soon won for himself a place in the esteem of everybody; the 
 prominent Americans, both civilians and soldiers, came to his side, and his 
 
 * Ordained Deacon December 6, 1900, by the Bishop of Pennsylvania. 
 
5 
 
 service soon numbered among its regular attendants, officers and privates 
 and the better class of American civilians. “It was a beautiful sight,” a 
 lady writes, “to see six or seven officers in the American uniform kneeling 
 at the chancel rail for the Holy Communion,” and that was frequently the 
 case, and is still. Mr. McGee labors under the disadvantage of having no 
 reputable building for his chapel. Until the middle of December, 1899, we 
 had been compelled to use an upper room over a cafe on the Prado, a noisy, 
 disagreeable location. Then Mr. McGee was stricken with yellow fever, 
 and, unfortunately, in a room on the same floor adjoining the chapel. We 
 were, therefore, compelled to abandon its use, and after a while, through 
 the kindness first of Gen. Brooke and then of Gen. Wood, we were given 
 permission to move into an unused commissary warehouse, where we are 
 still. It is an improvement on our old quarters, but it can never stand for 
 a Church. Could we build an attractive Church, it is safe to say we should 
 soon have a self-supporting congregation. Our building is a dreadful 
 handicap. Social laws and ceremonials in Cuba are rigid. The gentleman 
 and the lady will consider it beneath their dignity and incompatible with 
 their refinement to attend such a Church. The poorer class are doubtful 
 about it. It is the sign of something cheap. They do not know us, and 
 they must and will judge us by our exponents, and because of these 
 exponents we are rated by them with the Young Men’s Christian Associa¬ 
 tion, etc. When this is remedied through the generosity of our own 
 people, we shall see Mr. McGee at the head of a strong center of religious 
 influence, which will be felt throughout that portion of Cuba. Havana 
 is spiritually, as well as politically, the key to the island. 
 
 In the Summer of 1899, Sefior Arturo Escaroz was asked to take charge 
 of a school projected in Havana, connected with the chapel. He consented, 
 and vacating his position as a teacher of Latin in an Havana college, opened 
 this new work. Thus far it has justified itself, and Sehor Escaroz has 
 accomplished ail that could have been expected under existing circum¬ 
 stances. He has become a postulant, and it is hoped, before a great while, 
 he may push himself to ordination, and so give us another native clergyman 
 in Cuba. 
 
 In July last the Rev. Manuel F. Moreno was sent as a Missionary to 
 Bolondron, He is a Cuban himself, and familiar with the work, having 
 been engaged in it under the auspices of this Society before the war. He 
 and his faithful wife at once made themselves busy. He found a few 
 communicants there, and some people turning toward the Church, and a 
 pitiful orphan asylum, desperately begun by a noble Cuban physician in an 
 almost reckless hope to help the little suffering children. The Missionary 
 soon won affection and esteem, and has since then been made a member of 
 the Board of Education, His chapel was furnished in a simple—in a too 
 simple—and cheap way. But his work succeeded, and to-day he stands in 
 his community and among his people well. The fact that in January last 
 
6 
 
 Bishop Whitaker confirmed forty-four persons in this station, the result of 
 six months’ work, tells something of his devotion and success. The 
 Orphanage, for lack of support—the Society did not have the means at its 
 disposal—has been discontinued, and the girls removed to Matanzas. But 
 what Cuba needs, it should be known, is not food and clothes, nor yet so 
 much education, but God’s truth and Christian inspiration. Movements 
 directed to other ends are likely to prove to be waste of energy and generous 
 means until Christian forces are well in operation. 
 
 Bishop Whitaker, accompanied by Mrs. Whitaker, sailed, in January, for 
 Cuba, to make his Episcopal visitations. The report of this visit has been 
 made by him to the presiding Bishop, and is gratifying ; he confirmed ii8 
 persons. With him went the Rev. Andrew T. Sharpe, to occupy as a 
 Missionary such field as the Bishop should presently determine. Mr. 
 Sharpe for some weeks took charge of the work in Havana, that Mr. McGee 
 might have opportunity to recover with greater ease from his very severe 
 attack of yellow fever, which had left him much enfeebled. Later, upon 
 Mr. McGee’s resumption of his work, Mr. Sharpe went to Matanzas, where 
 he discovered a large and important English-speaking colony and con¬ 
 gregation, and with them he remained and worked for some months ; he 
 has now returned to Havana, but on January ist will open our Mission in 
 Santiago. Mr. Sharpe speaks Spanish, and has before him a bright future 
 in Cuba. 
 
 This constitutes what may be called the organized work in Cuba. In 
 Guantanamo a lady of this communion has been actively engaged in work 
 among the poor children, with a school and a day nursery and something 
 of an orphanage, at her own charges and through the response to her per¬ 
 sonal appeals to friends. She urges the Church to take up her work, and 
 make it specifically a Church work, but thus far we have been unable to 
 secure her help, and that opportunity may fade away. God forefend. 
 Just such another story is told of a lady in Sagua la Grande, and just such 
 failure to meet the issue. God stir up the hearts of His faithful people to 
 do their duty in these places crying for Christ’s help. In El Roque we are 
 coaxingly invited to come, in Cienfuegos there is fair opportunity, in 
 Remedios they petition us to come and work. But everywhere in Cuba we 
 have had opportunity, invitation and welcome. 
 
 Can the people of this Church in the homeland be aroused to such gene¬ 
 rosity and interest as will compare with the energy and character of those 
 in the field, we shall win much of Cuba to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 During this year—1900-1901—we should have at least |i2,ooo, to main¬ 
 tain our work, and at least S6o,ooo for the erection of a Church in Havana, 
 and Chapels elsewhere.* With these funds in hand our Cuban work will be 
 assured, and never was opportunity greater. 
 
 * A Chapel in Bolondron is now building. 
 
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