Unfortunately, it's a fictionalized story by the inspirational writer Elbert Hubbard, and almost none of the details are true. Wikipedia says: [S]omeone said t

Unfortunately, it's a fictionalized story by the inspirational writer Elbert Hubbard, and almost none of the details are true. Wikipedia says: [S]omeone said to the president there was 'a fellow by the name of Rowan 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. "In fact, the only true statement Hubbard wrote was that Rowan "landed ... off the coast of Cuba from an open boat". All the rest, including McKinley's need to communicate with Garcia and Rowan's delivery of a letter to the general, was false." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Message_to_Garcia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Message_to_Garcia