General Lopez,
The Cuban Patriot.

Cuba
Cxc k£88 850

Cuba,

ni rigiutHhefe Books
I |-/wf the founding if a. CoIUgt hkif^Colory^

° LniBisAiKy •

From the Library of
SIMEON E. BALDWIN, Y '61
Gift of his children
HELEN BALDWIN GILMAN
ROGER SHERMAN BALDWIN, Y '90
1927

TO THE PUBLIC.

General Lopez being on the road of covering himself with a glorius
name and of vindicating his claims to the titles of a skilful and brave sol
dier, which fame has already given him, it would be strange, if detractors
could not be found, especially when these titles are united to the other en
viable qualities of a noble, frank and popular character. We might as well
look for steel without the tempering, gold without the assay, or genius
without trial.
We have not therefore been astonished to see the law, to which heaven
has subjected men of superior merits, unfortunately so universal in its ap
plication, exemplified by the malicious passions, which have allowed no op
portunity to pass of attacking General Lopez with calumny, the only weapon
at their command. But as we have in our possession a pamphlet which gives
some brief sketches of the life of General Lopez, which we know to be faith
ful in their deliniations, and the truth of which none will be found to deny,
we have though the present an opportunity to bring them into notice by
means of the public press, that they may have a wider circulation and de
feat the machinations, which calumny has raised against a man destined by
Providence to take a prominent part in events of the greatest importance in
American history. C. V.

mm wb>ail iLtDtPtazk

THE

CUBAN PATRIOT.

Within the past year, and a-half the name of General Lopez, of Cu-=
ha, has been familiar to the press and people of the United States, as-
the projector and chief of a revolutionary movement contemplated in
that island, which was to have broken out in the summer of 1848, but
which was frustrated by discovery on the part of the government.
Many arrests were suddently made, and he himself, after being inform
ed that his principal friends had been arrested,' (to the number of two5
hundred, a-j the account was first brought to him, though it proved
afterwards to have been greatly exaggerated)', had time to escape on
board a vessel bound for Bristol, R.I. (-Rhode Island, not Round Island);
feeling himself reluctantly compelled to take that step to save his friends
from being shot, a fate which would have certainly have awaited them,
within three days if he had at that moment, with premature suddenness,
raised standard of the revolution.
Having obtained from the friends of General Lopez some interesting
particulars of his life and career, we propose to employ them as materi
als for a brief biographical sketch, which will serve to make better
known to our readers the brilliant career and noble character of a man
whose name is probably destined at no distant day to occupy no small
space in the history of our times,-^-so far at least as that history has
to deal with the political condition and changes of the American side of
the Atlantic.
General Narciso Lopez is now a little over fifty years of age, having
been born in Venezuela, in the year 1798 or'9. His father was a weal
thy landed propietor, owning large estates on the llanos or plains,
swarming with cattle,, horses, &c. His mother, who is still living is
one of those women of rare elevation of moral dignity combined with
mental strength, whose children, imbued with that noblest inheritance
of natnre, are stamped from the outset as born for command. General
Lopez was their only son that lived beyond childhood, though of daugh>
ters his parents had some fourteen or fifteen ; and according to the ha
bitual life of the llanos, passed almost from the cradle to the saddle, or
rather, we may perhaps say, to the back of a wild horse without any
saddle, — a training well calculated to ley the foundation of that charac
ter and habit of fearless hardihood, energy and resolution, which has-
been illustrated by his subsequent military career.
Though so successful as a soldier, and though that success was ac
hieved only by the display of extraordinary capacity as well as courage
it is singular that General Lopez has never been fond of the military
profession and life. He did not enter it from choice, but simply as a
resource of desperation, under circumstances forced upon him, at the

>»gVof fifteen, by the civil war then desolating all the Spanish South
American provinces. His father had been stripped of nearly all his
property, or had seen it rendered wholly unproductive, through the
operation of that cause, and with such means as he was able to realize
hap entered into commercial life at Caraccas, assisted by his son, who,
Tjoy as he was, was able to bear the burden of a large share of its res
ponsibilities. At the town of Valencia, in the interior, he had the
charge of a branch of his father's main establishment at Caraccas, at the
period of the sanguinary, and for the time decisive, battle of La Puerta,
in 1814, in which Bolivar, at the head of the insurgent troops, was. de
feated by the Spanish army under General Boves. Bolivar, though
routed, sent orders to the garrison of Valencia to maintain the place,
which was done with heroism to the last moment, so long as resistance
was possible; the inhabitants, who knew that massacre and plunder
would immediately ensue on the entrance of the victorious army, unit
ing in the defense with the few soldiers of the garrison. The town be .
ingan open one, this consisted simply in defending the approaches to the
plaza or square, which were hastily collected all the property and effects
which it was considered most important to protect. The house ,of
Lopez's father happened to be situated at one corner of the square, and
the boy took an active part in the defence at that point, and before long
found himself recognised by those collected at that point, soldiers and
citizens, without suspecting it himself, as their leader de facto. His
father, however, who was in Valencia at the time, buta man of different
mould from the boy whoi then made his maiden trail in arms,'took no
part in it. The resistance was prolonged three weeks, but no relief
came from Bolivar, who meanwhile abandoned indeed all that part of
the country which he had thus compromised, and made his way along
the coast towards Barcelona. The inhabitants of Valencia felt bitterly
resentful at this treatment by the Patriot leader, who had sacrificed them
for the escape of the routed fragments of his own force, by directing
them to make a resistance only justifiable on the idea of his coming to
their relief; while it could not fail to provoke even a redoubled degree
of the usual ferocity with which, in that terrible civil struggle, the con
quering party was in the habit of treating any town falling into their
possession. Massacre of the men was the general rule — a rule often
enough made to include a proportion of women and children. After
the. surrender of the place, Lopez was separated from his father, being
turned off as a child, while his father was herded with the men, suppo
sed, in spite of the capitulation to be reserved for massacre that night.
The boy himself, indeed, escaped that very narrowly. With some other
companions he had joined a couple negroes, slaves of his family, among
a great number more who had huddled together in one spot for safety,
that class not being usually included in the massacres of such occasions;
but during the night, fortunately issued forth with his two servants, in
the hope of being able to do something for his father, or to hear some
thing of him.
In this hope indeed he was mistaken, (though his father as he after
wards learned, did succeed in effecting his own escape,) but the next
morning on returning to the place which they had left for that purpose,
they found the ghastly spectacle of eighty-seven bodies with their throats
cut like sheep. After hiding about for some time, feeling himself con
stantly liable to the same fate, and reduced to a condition of entire des
peration, he determined to seek safety in the only situation in which it

¦was to be found, by enlistment ai a soldier in the army ; and selected an
opportunity of offering himself to a sergeant of more encouraging coun •
tenance than the others, by whom, not without some entreaty, he was
accepted as a recruit, — the sergeant little suspecting that the boy of fif
teen, and small in stature at that, whom he at first told to be off and
play,- was hereafter to become one of the most distinguished officers in
the service. The former did not indeed live to see it, for this good-na
tured sergeant fell shortly afterwards, it having been Lopez's lot to con
vey to him, amongst others, the order for the service which was hii
hut. •
Such were the circumstances which threw Lopez into the military
career, and which threw him into it on the Spanish side of the civil war
of that wretched period. He was a mere boy, and it was the only
chance for life; while at the same time there was probably then no in
habitant of Valencia who would have hesitated to shoot Bolivar, the
chief of the Patriot side, as the bitterest of enemies, had they had the
opportunity. Spain was then moreover under the Republican Constitu
tion of 1812, so that, in the civil war at that period, the cause of liberty
did not appear to be solely on the Patriot side. The battle of La Puer-
ta was deemed then to have completely crushed the rebellion in that
region, though in fact the struggle was renewed and protracted, with
various success, till the final evacuation of Caraccas by the Spanish
army in 1823.
At the end of the war Lopez, who had thus entered in the ranks,
found himself a colonel, having attained that rank at the age of twenty-
three through the brilliancy and daring of his services. The first occa
sion that attracted attention to him was shortly after his enlistment,
during an attack upon a certain place which was defended by field-
works, there being two bastions connected together by a curtain of
about fifty yards in length The Spanish force being divided into two
portions, engaged in attacking the two bastions, the ammunition of the
one portion gave out, and signal being made to the other to that effect,
the commander called for volunteers to lead three mules, loaded with
ammunition from the one end to the other, a service requiring a passage
along the line of fire of the enemy stationed behind the curtain connect
ing the two. Lopez was the only one who volunteered, and he set out
with the three mules in a string, according to the custom of the country,
the head of each fastened by a cord to the tail of the one before it. At
about half the distance across, one of the mules fell dead. The mule
killed being unluckily the middle one, it was necessary to untie Lhe cord,
and re-fasten the first and third together, all under a severe fire, which
was anxiously watched by both parties. He succeeded however, in
reaching his destination unwounded, though his gun was broken by one
ball, his pantaloons cut by another, and his cap pierced by a third,
with the other mules wounded, but not to death ; and the "place wag

* This was on the occasion of the first battle of Maturin, when the Spanish
General Morales, who was defeated, made gpod his retreat only by sacrificing a
column which he ordered to defend a certain position, a service which was cer
tain death, in a war in which prisoners cxpeced no quartrteg and were not dit-
appcinted. Exactly three months afterwards, a second battle was fought near
the same spot, in which Morales was victorious, and they found bodies of the
column in question, that is to say, their bleached skeleton«, to the number of six
hundred, laid out on the ground in regular array, by the Patriots, in rank and
tie, as though by a. mockery of discipline in death.

taken. The next day. inquiry was made, in a general order* for the
volunteer who had offered for this decisive service, with a view to his
receving an officer's commission. The commission, however he decli
ned, considering himself not entitled to be thus raised over the heads of
many men both grown and better qualified, for an act which had pro
ceeded more from the -despair and recklessness of his situation than from
any other spirit, and, in truth, still hoping for escape from service, to
which he was still strongly averse; and the only reward he accepted was
that of exemption from the drudgeries of a soldier's work, and of being
mounted instead of marching on foot, to which he had never been ac
customed. Still once in the service, the genius of the soldier, and the
spirit and emulation of military honor, prevailed over his own aversion
to the career ; and, at nineteen, he found htmself commander of a squad
ron of horse, a select force, designed for critical occaions to decide
pending conteste, a corps into which none but picked men were admit
ted, and with which it was a point of honor never to turn the back; and
at the age of twenty-three, a highly esteemed colonel of a regiment of
cavalry. Besides other distinctions, he received during this war the rare mili
tary honor of the cross of San Fernando of the second (the most dis
tinguished) degree ; a reward not bestowed at pleasure, but which is to
be obtained only by a public demand by the peison claiming it, and on
the institution of a formal process for a,nd against his right, every body
being free to interpose an objection, or to depreciate the merit of the act
for which it is demanded. In the whole army there was but one other
individual who possessed this cross. Lopez not attaching much im
portance to the act for which he was urged to apply for it, and more
over caring little for the honor himself, was only induced to demand it
by the Commander-in-Chief, General Morillo, who taunted him with be
ing afraid of a rejection of the demand, and who demanded his Secretary
to draw up the application, almost forcing the reluctant young officer
to sign it.
In the negotiations for the withdrawal of the Spanish army, he con
tributed much to cause the Spanish General [who could have protrac
ted the contest much longer, though with no hope of eventual success,]
to relieve the country from the further pressure of ihe evils of war, by
his influence exerted in every manner consistent with military honor ;
and it is no small proof of what must have been the appreciation of all
his character, conduct and motives, entertained even by those against
whom he had Ihus served, having been thrown by the circumstances
above explained on the Spanish side in the civil contest thus termina
ted, that on the conclusion of hostilities he was invited by the Patriot
government to enter its service, in the same rank held by him in the
Spanish army. He declined the offer, not considering that that honor
which had kept him in the service permitted him to accept it; and he re
tired with the evacuation army to Cuba, in the year 1823.
Since that date he has been a Cuban, having married and established
himself in the Island. The re-establishment of absolutism in Spain, by
the aid of the French intervention overthrowing for the second time the
Constitution of 1812, wholly prevented his resumption of service,
though retaining his nominal rank. The system then adopted was
to require a " purification1' from all the officers of the army, especially
those suspected of too much liberalism, a process consisting in the
adjuration of such sentiments and in an oath of devotion and support of

«
the new order of things. Always not only liberal but democratic,
in heart as well as in principles, he would never consent to compromise
with his conscience in that respect; and he accordingly remained
in retirement until, on the death of the old King, Ferdinand VII.,
the long smothered liberal party broke forth from under the despotic
incubus which had presssed it down, and assumed the ascendant in the
government of the country. Maria Cristina, the brilliant, bold but un
principled widow of the old King, after having caused the latter by his
will to devise the crown to her infant daughter Isabel, in disregard of
the Salic, law which had heretofore regulated the succession of the
throne of Spain, and therefore to the exclusion of the rights of
Don Carlos, the King's brother and next male heir, threw herself
on Ihe liberal party for support, and even resuscitated from its grave the
Constitution of 1812. The absolutist or royalist party soon prepared to
rise for the maintenance of the right of Don Carlos, whose character
and views made him moreover their natural head. Cristina, in antici
pation of the severe civil struggle which all knew to be about to ensue,
adopted the vigorous measure of disarming at a blow the whole royalist
party throughout the kingdom, so far as it was practicable; a service
which the people were summoned, and came foiward eagerly enough,
to perform, with "the aid of the troops that could be counted upon
by the Government. This movement, beginning at Madrid, was
at each important point the work of a day, and by its suddenness so
successful, that throughout the kingdom six hundred thousand stands
of arms were wrested from hands in which they would otherwise have
soon been employed for the re establishment of Don Carlos, the priests,
and absolutism. It was in the midst of the tumult of this memorable
day at Mad'id, that Colonel Lopez, (who happened to be at the capital
with his wife, to leclaim p. large sum of money arbitrarily seized from
the family of the latter by the Government in Cuba,) re-appeared on
the scene, signally distinguishing himself by the activity and boldness
which he exhibited, in heading bodies of the people in this operation of
disarming the royalists. Always a thorough republican in heart and
conviction, ho was one the most enthusiastic to welcome the revival of
ihe old ConcliLdlio'.-i r.r.d the constitutionalist party, and his joy took
the natural form of "ealous daring in the performance of this practical
service to the cause of his principles ; a service which was not all one
sided, a considerable part of the National Guard and some of the trcops
being royalist, and several attempts being made by the latter party to
rally and make a stand against the tide of popularenthusiasm that rose
snd raged around them, and finally overbore all resistance. More than
once in the course of the day Lopez was seen driving before him singly
with his sword, considerable bodies of the royalists, armed wtth
their guns, to the principal guard-house, to deliver up their arms,
treating them with little ceremony and making them acquainted
with the flat of his sword, and indeed cowing them into obedience
to his command as though be had been their own officer.
The consequence of this day was, that he was speedily despatched to
join the army, as first Aide-de-Camp to the Commander in Chief, Gen
Valdez ; and after taking a most active part in the war, being usually
selected for the most daring military work, he found hi,.,self at its close
a General, and covered with military decorations, among which were
the highly distinguished ones of the grand-crosses of St. Hermengiido

and Isabel la Calolica* Between himself and Valdez (who wss after
wards Captain-General of Cuba) a devoted friendship arose, which has
never sustained any diminution. The only pure and upright Captain-
General sent to Cuba within the memory of man, and therefore neces
sarily too good to be long left by the Government in that post, Valdez
has always been regarded by Lopez as the most virtuous man breathing
In his political sentiments, General Lortz never wavered from his
fidelity to the democratic party, known in Spain as the liberal exaltado
party. As a known and reliable member of that party, he was appointed
Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard of th- kingdom, a post
created for him at a critical period. He at different periods filled the
posts of Commander-in-Chief of various provinces. Though excessively
caressed by the Queen Mother Cristina, he early learned to despise and
distrust her, and her false, selfish and intriguing politics.
On the occasion of the popular insurrection at Madrid which resulted
In the expulsion of Cristina from the Regency, Gen. Lopez was ear
nestly solicited by the people to assume the command of the capital,
as Governor of Madrid, which, .when he found it incumbent on him as
a duty of humanity, at a difficult and critical moment, he consented to
do. The city being threatened by. the army, he. made the most ener
getic preparations for its defense; but happily the withdrawal of the
obnoxious Queen Mother to Paris avertel the necessity of the struggle,
for which he had braced the nerves of the people by the firmness of his
resolutiou and the vigor of his measures. Espartero, on whom the
government then devolved, and who was soon after appointed Regent
by the Cortes, was anxious to induce Lopez to retain the post of
Governor of Madrid ; but the latter would not remain, beyond the
period of emergency for which he had been called upon by the people
themselves, in a situation in which it might becdme his duty to act
against the people for the repressien of tumults, and three times pressed
upon the Regent his resignation ; which was only accepted when he
positively refused to take a negative answer, and he relieved Espartero
from the difficulty of filling his place, by himself recommending a com
petent successor.
Anterior to this period he had been appointed a Senator of the King
dom, by the Liberal city of Seville, Authorized by the constitution to
nominate three persons for the Senate, from whom the crown had to
select one, Seville took effectual means to make good its desire to be
Represented by Lopez, by naming as his colleagues, in the nomination,
two candidates whom it was impossible for tae court to adopt, the ona
being the Infante Don Francisco de Paula, the uncle of the young
Queen and brother of Don Carlos, and the other being a distinguished
Carlist Bishop.
His office of Senator afforded General Lepoz an oppertunity of
studying the politics of Spain, the spirit and action of its government,
especially in reference to its American Colonies, (Cuba, his country by
adoption and marriage, being the principal one,) which, amidst the
clash and splendor of arms, he had never before possessed ; and he wii-
% i  — '
* Even Carlist historians speak with high praise of their own most formida
ble enemy, Lopez ; relating, among other acts, the manner in which he saved the
army and the' honor of General Carondelet, who .almost beaten, by a surprise,
allowed Lopez, though only a colonel, to rally the flying troops, assume the en
tire cdmmand.'virtually'supersede the' general, and, to a great extent retrive th*
disaster of the day:

lingly, for a while, forgot the latter, glorious as they bad been to him,
to avail himself of ihe advantageous facilities of his position for the
former. Disgust and indignation were the first fruits ; resolution to be
the Liberator of Cuba, the next. The repulse of the Cuban deputies
from their seats in the Cortes— a Cortes existing by virtue of a consti
tution which gave to those deputies the same rights with those whose
votes repulsed them — had already awakened a deep feeling of resent
ment in his breast, as in that of all his Cuban compatriots. Though a
soldier from childhood, he had never had other than an American heart,
and he soon learned to regard with self-reproach his own glory acquired
in the Spanish service, and to dispise the glitter of his own uniform as
a mere livery, no more honorable in his eyes than that which bedizened
a rich man's negro calesero in his own country. Such thought [in the
breast of a man so honest in conviction, so resolute in will, and so fear
less in execution, was no barren sentiment ; and he deliberately deter
mined to devote the rest, of his life to the liberation of his country and
the recovery of his own dignity, — measuring the latter by a far higher
standard than the vulgar one of rank, military distinction, power or
court favor. Resigning his seat as a Senator, he insisted with Espar
tero on being allowed to return to Havana ; a permission which he did
not obtain without extreme difficulty, nor until after long resistence on
the part of the Regent, it being contrary to the jealous policy of Spain,
in the government of her rich colony, the Queen of the Antilles, to
allow an American born officer of rank of importance to go there. An
intimate friendship with Espartero, the noble head of the Liberal
or Progressist party in Spain, alone made practicable the importunity
with which General Lopez insisted on his demand, which he even en
forced by making it the alternative to a resignation of his commission ; —
and it cannot be denied that his own determined purpose in going, and
the consequences whieh have resulted from it, prove clearly enough the
policy of that rule, on the part of the Spanish Government, to which he
thus succeeded in causing himself to be made the fatal exception.*
General Valdez was at this time the Captain-General of Cuba, to
which post he had been shortly before appointed, to a great extent
through the influence of Lopez, who had urged it strongly as a means
of affording to himself an opportunity of leturning to Cuba with
Veldez. The latter as his most intimate and devoted friend, solicited
permission that Lopez should accompany him, but without success;
and it was not till several months afterwards that he 'finally effected hi*
object, as before remarked, partly through his threat of resigning his
commission and partly from the Regent's personal attachment.
It was, we believe, in 1S39, that he returned to Cuba. Darin*
the period of the Captain-Generalship of Valdez, honor, friendship and
gratitude combined, to require him to postpone any steps towards the
accomplishment of that great purpose which never slept within his
breast. The downfall of Espartero, and the restoration of Maria
Cristina to power, supported by Narvaez and the army, by causing the
* Lopez's secret wishes and views early adopted, have made him an object of
at least so much suspicion, in reference to Cuba, that several years before, by a
proceeding emanating from Havana, and from Tacon, then Captain-General he
had been subjected to a formal trial on the charge of conspiring for the indepen
dence of that colony, and of having, at a dinner, proposed as a toast a sentiment
to that effect. . He succeeded, however, in baffling his enemies, and was acquit
ted. "

9
recall of the virtuous Valdez, (who was succeeded by O'Donnell,
the predecessor of the present, Roncali,) released him from the personal
Obligations by which at first he had felt himself fettered ; and his
friends in Havana were surprised at the evident content and cheerful'
ness with which he received a change of parties necessarily depriving
him of the' posts which he held in the "military government of the
Island. Under Valdez, he was Governor of Trinidad and Commander-
in-Chief of the Centr 1 Department, as well as President of the Military
Commission. He gladly laid down these posts on the arrival of the
period of opportun ty and freedom for which he had impatiently waited;
and creating a pretext for returning to the Central Department, in re
tirement, (retaining of course his position and rank as General, though
not on duty,) by undertaking the working of an abandoned topper
mine, he devoted himself mainly to his object of organizing preparations
for his intended rising of the people against their oppressors; — an
object which, it is scarcely needed to say, required extreme caution
and tact as well as boldness, though he well knew that the general sen
timent of the people was already strongly predisposed to a movement
for independence. With this view he exerted himself in many ways to
establish a personal popularity and personal relations, as extensively as
possible with the country people of all the surrounding region, the
guajiros ; every one of whom is more accustomed to the saddle than to
any other seat, so that they may be called a population of cavalry,
whom a very little training under ihe inspiration of such a leader would
make a mounted force inferior to none in the world. He employed
every mode in his power to mike himself personally familiar with them,
to win their confidence and to attach them by services and favors ; — -i; n
operation in which, always lavish and careless of monej, he rpent with
an unreserved hand.
Among other modes of ploughing the ground for the liar", ?st in his
he made himself a volunteer dispenser of medicines and medical advice
to the country people for many a league around, reposing his conscience
on some French manuals of practice, and on some smattering of know
ledge ill that line, which was probably alone enough to place him " at
the head of the profession" among the country practitioners of Cuba.
In this way he. established the most friendly relations with hundreds of
families of the guajiros of the Centro.
Another mode adopted by him of bringing the country people toge->
ther and of mingling witth them, was by making matches for cock-
fighting at various points. This favorite popular amusement had been
forbidden by the Government, for the purpose of preventing such gather
ings of the country people ; but having contrived to extoit a license
from O'Donnell for the'occasion of the royal fiestas or holidays, though
the latter had refused many other applications, he not only got up,
with a few of his friends, a grand exhibition which brought together
half the country, but he managed to keep it up for the year lound
at mauy different niaces, without being interfered with by the local
authorities — using the shade of some broad trees for the place for
meeting. Mingling thus familiarly among the guajiro.i,m their own
costume, and as one of themselves, he thus prepared them to be in rea
diness for the approaching day. Aided by the respect due to his rank,
the brilliancy of his military reputation as the well-known bravest
and boldest officer of Cuba, his generosity and character for humanity
and good nature, he thu3 established an influence such> that he has

10
always been confident that that whole region would rise at his voice,
-whenever he should summon the people to rally round the flag of
liberty and independence. .
Having determined early in 1848, that the proper time had arrived,
he was only induced by some friends to postpone his intended rising for
a short time, in order to await the results ef some communications
which had proceeeded from a highly distinguished American officer in
Mexico, who knew the state of public feeling in the Island. This delay
led, through an accidental cause, to the discovery of his plan by the
Government, and to the sudden arrest of his friends, and the consequent
necessity, as explained at the beginning of this sketch, of his own pre
cipitate embarkation for this country, from whose friendly shores he
hoped soon to be able to return. His plan for Cuba has always been
Independence and Annexation to the American Union. After his escape,
he was condemned to death.* Against the persons who had been
arrested, (some of them perhaps with reason and some without,) no
evidence existed, and the greater part were released, — some being sent
out of the country.
The rest of General Lopez's life has to be written by a future biogra
pher. To the slight outline we have here given, we will only add
a few anecdotes illustrative of that enterprising fearlessness to which,
united with a quick and keen perception, fertility of resources, know
ledge of men and gift of command, are to be ascribed the rapid and
brilliant"* honors of his military career ; respecting which the most
extraordinary circumstance is, that while it was commenced perforce,
and as the only chance for his life, his heart- has never been in it, and he
has never desired better than an opportunity of withdrawing altogether
frem the military profession itself.
On one occasion in South America, landing with an expedition, some
what a la Cortez, in a wild and unexplored region, occupied by a
highly warlike tribe- of wild Indians [Iridios bravos] who' never had, nor
ever have been tamed, and with whom they had a severe engagement
on landing, the whole party came well nigh perishing for want of water.
Striking into the interior in quest of water, after marching in a tropical
climate for a whole day without finding stream or spring, they were at
last approached, at about sunset, by an Indian warrior mounted on a
magnificent horse, cream-colored, with black mane and feet. Lopez
was in advance with a small column when the commander summoned
him to consultation. The vessels from which they had landed the
afternoon before had sailed, so that they had no return. A number had
already died of exhaustion and thirst. They contrived to make the
Indian understand their want, and he in return conveyed to them that
he could conduct them to water which they could reach by day-break.
But here arose the perplexity, how far he was to be trusted. His pur
pose might be to decoy them away from the relief which they might
otherwise perhaps find in the direction they were pursuing, and to lead
them off astray to a certain and horrible fate. In the midst of this
anxious uncertainty Lopez solved the difficulty in a mode little likely
to occur to another, by proposing to mount himself behind the Indian
• Among his papers, seized by the government, was a letter to the queen
resigning lis commission, which was to have been sent to the Captain-General a
day or two before his rising. This has been described, by a friend who had seen
it, as a very noblo and beautiful production, finely reconciling the duty of mili
tary honor with that of patriotism.

11
on the powerful and fresh horse of the latter, and to go at the utmost
speed in quest of the water, to verify what was understood from tbe
signs of the Indian ; telling the commander that if he returned all would
of course be well, while if he did not return it would prove that he
was killed, that the Indian was playing false, and that therefore they
should in that case infer, that, by pushing on in the direction they were
going, they would probably find relief. The offer was accepted, and
his companions remained on the spot to await the result, all the bands
of discipline being meanwhile wholly relaxed. As it resulted, the
Indian conducted him truly, though of course Lopez had to plunge into
the depths of the forest and of the night, mounted behind a guide who
might lead him only into the midst of enemies He reached the water,
returned, and by conducting them to it saved the lives of the whole ex
pedition. It proved that the Indian was of a tribe hostile to those
against whose territory the expedition was proceeding. Some of his
wives had been carried off on a foray, and he was in pursuit of them
when he came upon the strangers whom he supposed of course the
enemies of his enemies, and therefore his friends. The Indian Orpheus
was rewarded not only by the recovery of his two or three lost Eury-
dices, but by liberal presents, and he afterwards proved a serviceable
guide. The oeeasion on which he received the cross of San Fernando, above
alluded to, was as follows, Morillo, at the head of a force of seven or
eight thousand men, was pursuing the Patriot army of Paez, numbering
about 3,000 over the llanos or plains of Venezuela, trying in vain
to bring the latter to an engagement. This the latter had of course no
difficulty to ayoid, his whole force consisting of first-rate cavalry, while
the Spanish army was mainly infantry. Lopez was at this period, as
has been above mentioned, at the head of a picked squadron, reserved
for decisive moments, with which it was a point of honor never to turn
their back. He had lost half of it in a severe engagement that morning,
and with the rest, thirty-eight in number, was marching on the extreme
flank of the army, when he received an order from the general to gal
lop forward and harrass the rear of Paez's retreating army. Morillo
had not recognised, at the distance, the fragment which remained of
Lopez's squadron ; which he would never otherwise have sent on such
a service, especially after the morning's work. Rash as the order was,
it was of course obeyed. On the perfectly level prairie which was the
scene of the operation, what ensued was in view of both armies. Paez,
provoked at the insolence of the little squadron, halted and put himself
in person at the head of a splendid corps of about 300 men, his guard,
the well-known flower of his army, in scarlet uniforms, and every man
superbly mounted ; and this corps was seen to detach itself from the
main body and rapidly approach the little band, whose destruction
seemed inevitable before the swoop of that force. Lopez asked his men
if they would stand or turn. The reply was that they would do as he
should. His answer was to fling himself from his horse, and command
them to do the same, thus burning his ships; and then to form his men
in line, to stand their ground as long as they could with gthe lances and
carbines which were their arms. He thus repulsed the charge of Paez
and his guard, refusing to surrender, maintaining himself till Morillo
•could hasten up all his cavalry to their support, and till the able Paez,
with whom his retreat was of much more importance than the annihila
tion of this handful of gallant fellows, whom none admired mora

than himself, withdrew his guard, and left Lopez, with what remained
of his dismounted squadron, to receive the cordiil embraces of his Gen
eral, and the plaudits of the whole army who had witnessed the scene
On another occasion, in the Carlist War in Navarre, he saved the
Commander-in-Chief, General Valdez, to whom he was at the time
Aide-de.Camp, and a division of his army, under the following circum
stances. Valdez had allowed himself to be surprised with only a small
part of his army, in a village named Durango, where he had established
his head-quarters ; the rest of the army being scattered in various direc
tions on different services. Suddenly, through one of those rapid
movements of concentration which marked the system of warfare of
Zumalacarregui, the celebrated Carlist Commander-in-Chief,* he found
himself suirounded in every direction with greatly superior forces.
Durango was situated in a valley, encompassed with hills of moderate
elevation, of which the enemy suddenly took possession Escape
seemed impossible; a bird alone, as it seemed, could carry the intelli
gence to the nearest Cristino division, situated at Ermoa, ten or twelve
miles distant, so as to summon it to the rescue. Colonel Lopez, how
ever, volunteered to do it, .claiming it as his duty and right as first Aide-
de-Camp, and pledged himself to bring up the division at Ermoa. The
Commander-in-Chief, though regarding. the attempt as desperate, yet
yielding to his demand, told him he might then take what force he re
quired for the purpose. " I could not do it with the half of the divi-
^— — — — ¦ —  ¦  ¦ — —
* Zumalacarregui was a truly great man, and Queen Isabella II. probably
owes the throne to which she does so little credit to the chance ball that killed
this famous chief on tho balcony of a house in Bilboa. Zumalacarregui told Lord
Elliott,) the English envoy who meditated, between the two parties to restore that
dreadful civil war to the rules of civilized warfare) that Lopez was the only one
of the Cristino officers whom he at. all feared, "because he always did what be
sill he would," One thing which Lopez effected, greatly annoyed and puzzled
the Carlist commander, no other of the Cristino General being able to do tho
same, though several of the Litter, were natives of the region in question. — this.
wis t ) orguuze and k.sep on foot a Navarrese corps, (the pipulation of Navarre-
biing all devoted Cm-list j.) Lopez managed to keep up a body of 370 of these,
whom ho treated with great favor and confidence, making them his body guard.
They were well known as " los Colorados de Lopez." " Lopez's Reds," from the
color of thoir uuiform. Among General Lopez s papers is an interesting letter
from the great Carli-it oommander. On the taking of a certain town, Lopez pro
tected tho life of a wounded Carlist sold:er, a Nav.u-rcse, who was f mud in it, and
whom tho Uristinos were about t> dispaicli, according to the polite custom of the
country and time. Lopez sent him to his own quarters, find thence to another
town to be tended and cured. Some months after, the man being now quite re
stored to health, and leading a very cooaCoi-Uble life under the protection he had
received, (practising his trade as a shoemaker,) he was brought to the attention
of Lopez who had forgotten all about him, and the latter sunt for him, hoping to
find in him a recruit for his Colorados. He began by asking him what excuse he
could have mw that the other was cured, for not letting him be shot, since it was
only his being wounded before, which had enabled him to save him. This was
rather an embarrassing question. General Lopez then wont on to ask, if he were
free now, where of all places would he prefer to go, and what to do? The man
answered, frankly and boldly, that he would prefer to go and join his old com
pany among the Carlists ; a reply which so pleased Lopez that he at once des
patched him with a courteous letter to Zumalacarregui. telling him exactly what
had passed, and aiding that he sent him back the man, free to join his old com
pany, os a mark of respect for the man and for him (Zumalacarregui.) Zumala
carregui replied quite magnificently, in a very curious letter, that ho would not
be outdone in generosity by General Lopez, and accordingly, in return for his
present, sent hnn back seven Cristino prisoners, free to join their companies
Perhaps the incident helped to throw a little light, in the mind of the Carlist
chief, upon the mystery how General Lopez was able to keep up a corps of Nava
trcse, and oven to trust himself so unreservedly to thorn as his body-guard

IS
sion" was the answer, " but let me have your piebald horse, which yoi.
bought on my advice." It was brought, and Lopez mounted it, taking
with him only his orderly, (a fellow on whom he could trust to follow him
over and through any thing,) the latter being mounted on Lopez's own
favorite charger. Directing him to keed close to him, and to regulate
his pace by his own, and, since if was not likely that both would escape,
instructing him as to the order to be carried to Ermoa, he set out at
full speed from Durango, along a road which passed between two emi
nences, both occupied by the enemy. Slackening then his speed, as he
got well clear of the former place, and approached the enemy, but riding
with entire confidence, he and his companion presented the appearance
of deserters; and two squadrons which had at first detached themselves
from the enemy on both sides to intercept them, slackened the pace at
which they moved down upon the road for that purpose. He then,
with a nice calculation of the distance at which he might venture it,
suddenly clapped spurs to his horse, and rushed through the shower of
balls which immediately poured down from both sides and in pursuit,
cleared the gauntlet before they could cut him off, and the thing was
done. In the words of Valdez's ceitification, " to the astonishment of
the enemy, and of the army, both of whom were watching the ope
ration, he traversed the line," and the army was saved.
In all the acts of heroic daring on the part of Lopez which are fami
liarly current among the Spanish soldiers, and which, together with his
humanity, kindness, and freedom from the arrogant pride habitual to the
Spanish officers, have made him so popular with them, it is to be
remarked, that the boldness is never recklessness, but is always -elicited
by a worthy occasion, and combined with that quick and acute calcu
lation of the possibility which is the essence of military genius.
We arc unwilling to omit an incident in the military life of General
Lopez, in which our readers will not fail to recognize the '¦ high Roman
fashion." Together with a large number of others, he was at one time a
prisoner in the hands of the Carlists, at a place named Cantavieja, a for
tified place in the depths of the mountains of Aragon, which was >uppus<.d
a safe plac: of custody. There were about seven hundred prisoners 'col
lected there. Lopez was the highest in rank among the prisoners, and was
confined in a small room apart frcni the rest, with lour other superior offi
cers. The governor of the place was a brutal and bloody wretch, who lost
no opportunity of outraging his prisoners. He was greatly enraged when a
Cristino army, under General San Miguel, now one of the most respectable
officers in Spain, began to approach the pla.;e to besiege it, overcoming, by
extreme exertions, the difficulties which, had been supposed to make it inac
cessible. The governor thereupon declared that the first gun fired against
the place should be the signal for death of all the prisoners in it, from
General Lopez down, (an act perfectly in accordance with the system of war
of Cabrera, who commanded for Don Carlos in that quarter) ; ai_d offered
Lopez permission to write to San Miguel to that effect, — in the belief, of
course, that ho would dissuade him fro uthe enterprise. Lopez accordingly
wrote, indeed, simply mentioning the fact which he had been requested by
the governor to communicate, but adding, that General San Miguel would
of course carry out his own plans, without regard to this circumstance, which
was, moreover, a proof that the governor was afraid that ho would not be
able to maintain the place against the apprehended siege. San Miguel at
length made his appearance before Cantavieja, and bjgan to throw up his
siege works. The governor then went to the room in which Lopez was con
fined, and told him that lie deeply deplored tho necessity under which he
was now placed, of ordering the execution of the prisoners, but offered them
another chance, by saying that General Lopez might go out to San Miguel's
eamp, to explain in person the state'of things, so as to induce the latter to-
withdraw ; giving his word of honor that ho would roturn immediately..^

14
Lop&z accepted tho offer,, and presenting himself to San Miguel and his offi
cers, who welcomed him as a favorite friend, sat down to a cheerful breakfast,
at which he expl lined the errand on which he had been sent. He executed
it, however, in his own way, by advising San Miguel of the best mode of at
tacking the town by storm, giving him the benefit of the observations he
had been able to make of its defenses inside ; and it was agreed that the
attack should be made the next day. The prisoners had contrived toob-
tain the promise of fome forty muskets from some of the Navarrese soldiers
in the place, with which they would make at least some resistance to the
amiable purpose of the governor; a resistence which might thus afford a
useful diversion during tho attack. This being all discussed, together with
the breakf st, Lopez rose to depart, which he was not suffered to do till he
had overpowered the chorus of opposition he encountered, by the declaration
of his inflexibla resolution, The governor confessed himself very much
astonished to see him back. The town was vigorously attacked the next
day, and taken by assault; the prisoners escaping the impending fate
(which, by-tho-way, a certain cura, or priest, who was one of the principal
Carlist officers in the garrison, was the most eager to inflict,) by the rapidity
of the oper tion, and the terror with which tho garrison wera impressed.
11 They had no time, and they were afraid of reprisals, that was all, "was
General Lopez's modest commentary, on a recent occasion, when the in
quiries of some friends (who happened to observe on his table a letter direc
ted to General San Miguel at Madrid,) elicited the particulars of this
story in which we see a ray of the classic glory of Regulus, though he him
self wns the only one who saw nothing in it remarkable.
W will mention but one other incident in the career of this extraordinary
and noble man, for the purpose of exhibiting his practical aptitude for the
direction of popular masses, as well ss for military comnnand. Befors the
expulsion of Maria Cristina from the Regency, when the Liberal Exaltado
party had become indignant at the course and indications of the Govern
ment, (it being believed that negotiations were on foot for a coalition
between her and Don Carlos, through the means of a marriage of the young
queen with his son,) and when the people were especially exasperated at
the feebleness with which the war was conducted on the part of the Mode-
rado government, Lopez happened to be passing through Valencia, accom
panied by a single friend, on his way to the army in Ca'alonia, to which he
had been ordered. It was at a period when the Cirlist General, Cabrera,
was raging through that region. Lopez was a total stranger in Valenciat
where he had no other personal acquaintance than the Captain-General,
Mendcz Vigo. Spending the evening at the theatre, he heard in his place
vague reports of some commotion among the people, of which the Captain-
General, to whom he spoke about it, made light. After a short time, how
ever, the latter rose and left his box. Ten minutes had not elapsed before
an Aide-de-camp came in, pale and excited, and whispering, as he passed
to Lopez that the Captain-General had been killed by the populace, hastened
to escort the wife of the latter, ignorant of her husband's fate, to the
government palace. General Lopez, in pursuance of his military duty, pro
ceeded there also, and thence to the capital, where the authorities of the
city had already hastened, and placed himself at their disposal. The general
cause of the outbreak was the popular discontent with the Government and
its agents in Valencia ; its immediate cause, the recent butchery of sixty
Valeccian patriots by Cabrera in a horrible manner, and the refusal of the
authorities in command to make reprisals on the Carlist priseners in the
gaol in the citadel, or to act with energy in the prosecution of the war.
The national guard constituted the bulk of the insurgents, whose numbers
by the next morning were said to have swelled to thirty or forty thousand
infuriated men, who threatened to attack the citadel, demanding as the
first concession to their vengeance, the heads ef two er three of the
principal and most obnoxious authorities, and the lives of the Carlist
prisoners, and then active measures against Cabrera. On learning that
General Lopez was in the citadel, whom they well knew by reputation
oiiough he had never befoiw been in the place, the leaders of the

15
populace expressed themselves willing that every thing should bo placed
in his hands and under his command. The trembling authorities en
treated him to comply with their demand, and to assume the supreme
authority of the revolted city, to which ho at length consented, as a duty
of necessity as well a3 humanity. Sallying forth alone, in consequence, he
sson found himself in the midst ofaerowd, ranging and shouting around him
in deafening and utterly unmanagaable confusion, insisting first on the heads
of the victims. A den full of hungry and howling lions affords a fetble idea
of a Valencian mob on such an occasion, and on that occasion. A sign of
faltering would have been fatal. Lopez could only at last by dint of oaths,
vioence, and even blows, clear a sufficient space'1 around him for intelligible
conferencce with the leaders ;and he then insisted that he would assume the
command and government of the city only on condition of implicit obedience
to all his directions, the first of which was that every man should immedi
ately retire to his homf ; that if they were to govern him, instead of his
governing them, he would return to the citadel, or they might kill him on
the spot, as they had done the Captain-General. He prevailed, and order
was restored, — though he has often remarked that, active ag has been liia
military service, this was the most intense crisis, and the most anxious mo
ment, of life. The obnoxious individuals of the government he contrived to
get out of the way ; and in regard to the prisoners, he procured from the au
thorities the names of all the malefactors under sentence of death, of whom
there happend to be a large number, fourteen, already doomed to a fato
Which was only anticipated a little by executing them asCarlists prisoners,
so as to appease the first thirst to the mob for their vengeance ; and he
then turned their attention into the channel of vigorous preparation for the
reception of Cabrera, who was near and treatening the city.
In the anomalous situation into which necessity had thus thrown him,
as the apparent head of a rebellion against the government, whilehehad
only accepted the helm in a hurricane amidst the rocks, to steer the ship
to safety and calm again, he was denounced at Madrid, where his demo
cratic principles had already made him an object of jealousy and fear;
.and the general commanding a neighbouring division of the army ap
proached the city, summoning him to submission. He replied by ex
plaining privately the truth of his position, adding at the same time,
that if the other approached nearer he would defend the city with the
people, desclaiming responsibility for the consequences. He thus re
stored tranquillity, and satisfied the people-; and to complete the system
of his measures, urged the general, [who had recognized the propriety of
Lopez's course, and then been admitted into Valencia,] to proceed at
once to attack Cabrera. The latter refused, pleading want of sufficient
force. « How much more would suffice to put you in sufficient force ?»
« Two thousand men, » was the answer. « Well you shall have them
to-morrow. » « But where are they to come from ? » « I will furnish
from the people of Valencia. » « Nonsense, national guards, volun
teers, good for nothing. » « I will command them myself, and be res
ponsible that they shall be the most effective force of your army.» The
proposition was at length accepted, and the batallion was organized, to
the number of 3,000, in one evening and night ready to march the next
morning. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed, and it was a contest who.
should be admitted into the batallion. Cabrera was pursued, brought
to action, and completely routed, — the Valencians having, in effect,
done the best part of the work. After this, there was no further trou
ble with them ; and Lopez resigned his singular dictatorship, which he
had held, independent of the authority of the Government, on a tenure
of quasi-revolution, for about a months and Went on his way to his ori
ginal destination. The Commander-in-Chief, in sending to the Government
the account of the battle, recommended, as usual, a great number of decora-

16
tions and promotions, through all the grade; of the victorious army, begins
ning with a recommendation of the Grand Cross of " Isabel la Catolica " for
General Lopez From the disposition of the Court at that time towards him,
that recommendation was the single one not accepted ; which elicited from
the Commander-in-Chief the reply to the Ministry of War, that if it had oh
the contrary rejected all the rest, and accepted that one alone, it would have
been more just; for that neither would the battle have boon fought without
General Lopez, nor without him would it have been won.
A i.oblerl-urcl still than that of any of his military honors, is due to Gen
eral Lopez, for the well known character which attached to him in Cuba, as
one to whom a tale of wrong or oppression was never told without tho cer
tainty of finding him willing to hear quick to sympathize, and never back
ward in exertions to redress. While Valdez was Captain-General, be was
the channel for most of the petitions and complaints of all kinds, Which ascen
ded foom the unfortunate and tho poor, to the supreme power On one occa
sion, with O'Donnell, Valdez's successor, when, by persistance, he bad indu
ced the Captain-General to revoke an oppressive decision which he had just
made, in the case of a poor old widow applying for a pension, Lopez told him
that he (0' Do-moll), must bear with him, for that, under his predecessor, he
had many a time twenty-fivocasos in a day, in which he had to urge the pe
titions of the po ir, who made their advocate-, and ho produced an appalling
list of memoranda of cases which he had then been solicited to present. Not
unfrorpiontly has he been known to make journeys from the interior (the Cen
tral Department ) to Havana, for the sole purpose of claiming justice for a
poor [guajiro], improperly or otherwise wronged. And in tho army the com
mon soldier always knew General Lopez as a sure friend, to whom he would
never have to look in vain for justice or generosity. Thetiuthis, that, com
bining readily with a very kindly disposition, his democratic principles have
natuarlly generated in an habitual sympathy with tho poor and the'opprcssed,
which an earnest and resolute energy of character has ever tended ;o make
practical and active. On one occasion, when reproved by the Captain-Gen
eral, Valdez, for descending from the dignity of his rank, in appearing as the
defender of a sub<>v'linate officer, before a court-martial composed of mem
bers of corresponding grade, his reply was «that any court representing tin
law and the dignity of justice, was far above his or any other military
rank; and moreover, that if his general's faja (sash) was to forbid his defen
ding the cause of the humblest sold'.or whom he believed to be wronged, he
would throw it off, and prefer to return to the rank of lieutenant : " a reply
which Valdez afterwards acknowledged to have been right, and to have raised
still higher the attachment and respect in which ho bad always held Gene
ral Loppz.
This is Liie man who (. not without the aid of some Cuban patriots in civil
life, some of whose names arc before the world, others, not less Worthy, begmo-
noccs-j-.irily reserved ;. has undertaken the noble mission if emancipating Cu
ba from the yokj and the abomina'.ion of Spanish tyranny, with a view to
her t.itrance into our Union. I'iorth and south, cast and west, we ap
prehend 1 he-re are few who will not wish the movement God-speed. That
the people of Cuba are themsolvs' anxious for it is a truth familiar to us
thiough many accumulated evidences. If any one could doubt it, the one
simpl- that -only one lady attended the Queen's Birth-night ball, ' in the
city of Matanzas, last October, (and that lady the wife of an official,) would
suffice to prove the unanimity of the public sentiment, especially when we
regard tho time and circ- instances under which the brave beauties of Ma
tanzas dared to make so open a demonstration. General Lopez's "prestige"
with the army, together w.th its discontent, also well known, added to the
popularity which lie possesses with the country people, especially of the Cen
tral Department of the Island, will probably make the movement a rapid and
easy one, whenever he may think it the proper time to make a voyage to Cu
ba; — If indeed he still contemplates such a voyage, at some future day, when
under an administration loss sympathetic with every anti-popular cause, he
may not find the Navy of the United. States applied to the inglorious service
of the blockade of our own shores,

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 04027 9128