DEATH OF A. CUBAN INSURGENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1179, 4 July 1874, Page 3

DEATH OF A. CUBAN INSURGENT.

A Spanish journal gives the following particulars of the way in which Manuel Oespedes, the leader of the Cuban insurgents, met with his death : — "Being closely pursued by the Spanish Volunteers, he had at last found what he believed to be a safe place of refuge, accom-' panied by a negro, whom he had formerly emancipated, and who had followed him since the outbreak of the insurrection. The latter, in whose fidelity he placed full reliance, betrayed his master's hidingplace in order to save his own life. He conducted the Spaniards to the spot where Oespedes was hidden, and though the insurgent leader offered a desperate resistance he was soon overpowered and put to death." Carlos Manuel Cespedes was born at Bayoma in 1817, and took his degree at one of the Spanish universities. He was one of the first to agitate for the autonomy of Cuba, and upon the 9th of October, 1868, he proclaimed the independence of the island at his plantation at Moyagua, and accompanied this proclamation by emancipating all his own slaves to the number of nearly five hundred. About half of them joined his cause, and it was by one of them that he was at last betrayed. Upon the 10th of April, 1869, he was appointed President of the Cuban Republic, since which time his life has been one long series of adventures and hair-breadth " escapes. His property has been confiscated by the Colonial Government, and his houses burnt by the Spanish soldiery, and all his sons were either shot beside him or captured by the enemy.

A Popular Drawing. — Drawing a salary Set Together by thk Bars.— Sheaves of wheat.