The special correspondent of the Times at Havana reports the
result of a week's tour in the province of Matanzas. He found sympathy with the insurgents everywhere, a Spanish planter, in particular telling him that the choice for Spain lay between the grant of autonomy and the total loss of the island. The negroes are joining the insurgents in crowds, because they get food, which they cannot obtain on the sugar- estates, because the banks will no longer make advances to the planters. The correspondent evidently thinks that the stories of Spanish successes are often untrue, and that the guerilla warfare is wearing down the troops, who some- times arrive undisciplined and untrained. The insurrec- tion, to all appearance, may last for years, and rain the island; but Senor Sagasta, the former Liberal Premier, as well as Senor Canvas, the Conservative, has declared that in no case will Spain consent to grant autonomy. It is believed, though much secrecy is preserved, that the revolt is draining the Madrid Treasury, and that a new loan must be raised, which will be difficult, as the French bankers are growing alarmed at the increased expenditure. Perhaps the most ominous fact in the whole story is the failure of the regulars in Cuba, who now number as many men as the British Army in India.
