He acquired wide reputation as a poet, novelist and ecclesiastic, both in Spain and Cuba, and was selected by the Spanish Academy to deliver the oration on the anniversary of Cerantes' death in Madrid.

His favorite Cuban pupil was Juan Gaulberto Gomez, the mulatto journalist, who has been imprisoned time and again for offences against the Spanish press laws.

Senor Gomez, whose home is in Matanzas, is now on the shady side of 40, a spectacled and scholarly looking man.

After the peace of Zanjon he collaborated in the periodicals published by the Marquis of Sterling.

In '79 he founded in Havana, the newspaper La Fraternidad, devoted to the interest of the colored race.