In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion.When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents.Garcia was somewhere in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba - no one knew where.No mail or telegraph message could reach him.The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly. What to do?Some said to the President, “There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan who will find Garcia for you, if anybody can.”Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia.How the “fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oilskin pouch, strapped it over his heart,in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle,and in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot and delivered his letter to Garcia - are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.The point that I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?”
