Cuba Part 14

"All eyes are directed toward the north, to the republic which is the mother of all Americans. The people of the United States must bear strongly in mind now, as never before, that profession is null and void, if action does not affirm it."

But action has come at last, as the fiendish Spaniards have already found out to their cost.

What is Cuba, the "Pearl of the Antilles," at the present time of writing? The answer to that question is as follows:

A land devastated and temporarily ruined; a gem besmirched almost beyond recognition; a heap of smoking ashes; a population of starving men, women and children, with an iron hand clutching remorselessly at their hearts; a horrible, ghastly picture of what savage men are capable of in the way of destruction.

Now, Americans, people of the free and independent United States; you who enjoy all the blessings of liberty; you who can pursue your avocations without let or hindrance; you who are the jury in this case--the evidence is before you.

You have undoubtedly heard it said that the interference of the United States was unwarrantable; that there was no real reason for the present Spanish-American war; that a stronger country took advantage of a weaker; and other arguments ad nauseam.

But is there one of our readers who would see a woman, or a weak though honorable man, attacked by a savage foe, without interfering, and doing the best he could to give life and freedom to the oppressed?

Think it all over, Americans, and think it over carefully and judiciously.

At your own doors, is a poor, miserable, starving wretch, starving from no fault of his, and with a bulldog, not your own, but belonging to a neighbor (a neighbor, grant you with whom you have always. .h.i.therto been at peace) about to fasten its fangs in the throat of this unhappy man.

Would you hold your hands, saying that it was no affair of yours, or, with your superior strength, would you fly to the rescue?

Once more, Americans, you have heard the whole evidence. The case is in your hands.

What is your verdict?

CHAPTER XII.

THE BUTCHER'S CAMPAIGN.

Now let us go back to the making of history, to the time when the butcher Weyler came to Cuba to a.s.sume the governor-generalship.

By this time the Cuban question had been brought authoritatively before the United States Senate, the people were beginning to be strongly roused with indignation at the state of affairs in Cuba, and there was considerable excitement when the news of Weyler's appointment became known.

Strange to say, the insurgents rejoiced rather than grieved at this appointment, the cause of which is not far to seek. They knew thoroughly well Weyler's character, and what his policy was more than likely to be.

They thought that it would drive all the Cubans, who were wavering, into their ranks and would at last force the United States, whose people, when all is said and done, were their natural allies and defenders, to intervene.

After the battle of Coliseo, Gomez and Maceo made their way through Madruga, Nueva-Paz and Guines. Then they destroyed, at a large number of points, the very important railway which connected Havana with Batabano, and also cut the telegraph wires. When they had accomplished this, the two leaders separated, Gomez to advance in the direction of Havana, and Maceo to invade Pinar del Rio, which is in the extreme west of the island.

Gomez succeeded in burning several more or less important suburbs of Havana.

Almost the first military movement that Weyler made was an attempt to cut off Maceo and prevent his communication with the other detachments of the Cuban army. It seemed to be his chief purpose to compa.s.s the death of the mulatto leader, a purpose which at last was most unfortunately accomplished, but then only through treachery.

In emulation of his predecessor, Weyler also tried his hand at trocha building. He constructed a fence of this description across Cuba between the port of Artemisa and the bay of Majana, about twenty-five miles from Havana.

It may be of interest to describe this particular trocha, as it was one of, if not the most important, and a good example of the others.

As its name, trocha, signifies, it was a ditch, or rather two ditches, some three yards wide and the same in depth, with a road between them broad enough to allow cavalry to pa.s.s. On each bank was a barbed wire fence, to stop the a.s.sailants' progress. Beyond the two ditches, were trous-de-loup, or wolf-traps, from twenty to seventy feet apart. At every hundred yards or so there were fortifications. After night fell, this fortified line was lighted by electricity. Twelve thousand men comprised the garrison, besides outposts of half as many more.

Weyler prided himself greatly upon this trocha, which was intended to keep the rebels at a distance.

But, in spite of all the precautions taken, the wily Maceo and his men more than once crossed the trocha, and the Spanish were not the wiser until it was too late to prevent them.

Once, when they had pa.s.sed the obstruction without a shot being fired, the insurgents tore up some distance of a railway line on the further side of the trocha, the Cuban leader remarking:

"We did this just to show the enemy that we noticed their plaything."

The headquarters of the insurgents was and is up to the present writing, a place called Cubitas, the top of a mountain, something over a score of miles from Puerto Principe. It is practically impregnable, only a very narrow spiral path leading up to it. A handful of men could defend it against a large army. The little plain on top of the mountain has an area of more than a square mile. It is arable land, and many food products are raised there. The insurgents have constructed here quite a number of wooden buildings, and they have also a dynamite factory. It would take a long time to capture the place by storm or to starve the defenders out.

The Cubans have had one great advantage, that is, they are acclimated.

Quite the contrary is true of the Spanish army of invasion, and their ranks have suffered far more from the climate than they have from the bullets of the foe. Added to this, their wages are greatly in arrears and the rations provided for them are unwholesome and insufficient. The surgeons have a very small supply of quinine and antiseptics, both of which are absolutely essential.

The strength of the two armies, at the time of Weyler's arrival in Cuba was about as follows: The government has 200,000 men, including the 60,000 volunteers, while the insurgents numbered not much more than a fourth of this, some fifty or sixty thousand men, which were scattered among the various provinces, the largest proportion being ma.s.sed in Santiago de Cuba.

There were twenty-four generals in the Cuban army, nineteen being white, three black, one a mulatto, and one an Indian; of the thirty-four colonels, twenty-seven were white, five were black, and two were mulattoes.

The record of the mortality among the Spanish soldiers is an appalling one, something simply ghastly to contemplate.

Harper's Weekly has published statistics concerning Spanish losses in Cuba, which were obtained from a source that it was forbidden to disclose. In two years from March, 1895 to March, 1897, 1,375 were killed in battle, 765 died of wounds, and 8,627 were wounded, but recovered. Ten per cent. of the killed and fatally wounded were officers, and 5 per cent. of the wounded died of yellow fever, while 127 officers and about 40,000 men succ.u.mbed to other maladies.

Another authority gives the following rates of losses: Out of every thousand, ten were killed, sixty-six died of yellow fever, two hundred and one died of other diseases, while one hundred and forty-three were sent home, either sick or wounded.

Out of two hundred thousand men sent to Cuba in two years, only in the neighborhood of ninety-six thousand, capable of bearing arms, were left the first of March, 1897.

During our own civil war one and sixty-five one-hundredths per cent. of all those mustered into the United States service were killed in action or died of their wounds; ten per cent. were wounded, and a little less than two per cent. died of wounds and from unknown causes.

That we lost during the civil war, 186,216 men from disease is terrible enough, but to equal the percentage of the Spanish losses from the same cause, during twice the time that our war lasted, would bring the total up to a million and a half of men.

From the very beginning, the insurgents held possession of the two eastern provinces, Santiago and Puerto Principe. It was only by unremitting efforts and the loss of many lives that the Spaniards retained their hold on the district about Bayamo.

Late in 1890 General Calixto Garcia, now second in rank to Gomez, and playing an important part in the aiding of the American troops, landed on the island with strong reinforcements. Garcia, who was also a veteran of the Ten Years' War had several more or less important engagements with the Spanish, in almost all of which he was victorious.

Antonio Maceo, in order to consult with Gomez, crossed the trocha on the night of December 4, 1896. The next day, at the head of five hundred men and within an hour's ride of Havana, he was killed in a skirmish, just as he had made the declaration that all was going well. A young son of Gomez, who was suffering from an old wound, and who refused to leave the ground until his chief was carried away, was also killed.

There is not the shadow of a doubt but that this double catastrophe was due to the treachery of one of Maceo's companions, a certain Dr.

Zertucha.

One of Maceo's aides tells the story as follows: "Firing was heard near Punta Brava, and Zertucha, who had ridden off to one side of the road, came galloping back, crying: "Come with me! Come with me! Quick! Quick!"

Maceo at once put spurs to his horse, and, followed by his five aids, rode swiftly after the physician, who plunged into the thick growth on the side of the road.

The party had only ridden a few yards, when Zertucha, bent low in his saddle, and swerved sharply to one side, galloping away like mad.

Almost at the same moment, a volley was fired by a party of Spanish soldiers hidden in the dense underbrush, and Maceo and four of his men dropped out of their saddles, mortally wounded."

The single survivor, the man whose words are quoted above, contrived to get back to his own party and brought them to the scene of the tragedy.

The Spaniards were driven away, Maceo's body was found stripped, and young Gomez had been stabbed, and his skull was broken.