Our past hardships were soon forgotten.

It was enough to stir the heart of any lover of liberty to witness that portion of Gomez's ragged army, under command of General Castillo, lined up to welcome us to their beautiful island, and to guide and guard our way to the Spanish strongholds.

To call it a ragged army is by no means a misnomer.

The greater portion of those poor fellows were both coatless and shoeless, many of them being almost nude.

They were by no means careful about their uniform.