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Latest News from the Seat of War: Island
And the general told the Herald he was going to be on the offensive all summer. A sugar broker in Havana, commenting on General Weyler's latest declaration that the rebellion will be put down in two years, says Cuba will be "a mere cinder path" before that time, and he added: "It has been said that the work of the torch must end somewhere, but fires continue to crackle merrily all over the Island, and the end is not yet. An inevitable result of this form of campaign has been the levying of blackmail by minor chiefs. A wealthy man informed me yesterday that he had been notified by the insurgents in charge of the district where his property is located that it would be spared for the consideration of $6,000. As the buildings cost more than $250,000, the owner would gladly pay the $6,000 if he knew that he would receive protection. He fears, however, that if he pays, the rebel officer will be transferred to some other section of the Island and his successor will immediately apply the torch. Something of that kind recently happened in Matanzas province, where a building was burned after $500 had been paid to protect it.
Another result of the war may be the practical extermination of the Cuban breed of horses that are not unlike Texas mustangs in appearance, small, wiry and very strong. Horses have always thrived here, and there was an enormous number of them on the Island when the war began. Since then the slaughter has been going on, Spaniards and insurgents alike killing all those found in the country that they could not use themselves, to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy.
It is this destructiveness going on with accelerating vindictiveness that is joined to the ferocity with which the people, trying to save themselves by neutrality, are assailed that mark for the worse the progress of the war. A letter from Cuba Libre, dated in camp Aline, April 16th, from Mariano Torres, in which he made this reference to General Gomez: "I am now at the head of the Cuban forces in this rich and important part of Las Vilas, and I had the pleasure a few days ago of receiving a visit from the commander-in-chief." M. Torres writes, the Spaniards "have decided to ruin and devastate the country, and kill all the peaceful, harmless, and defenseless people they find in the way," and the letter proceeds with the account of half a dozen massacres. A Santiago de Cuba despatch gives his accounts of the capture of Spanish trains--the most important affair being at Manzanillo, April 21st. The Spanish column was "taking a large convoy to Venecia. A bloody engagement began, and lasted an hour and a half. As the insurgents occupied excellent positions, they succeeded in disorganizing the column completely, and nearly the whole convoy fell into their possession. They took twenty wagons drawn by oxen, ten carts drawn by mules, and eighteen mules. The articles captured were Mausers, cartridges, clothes, medicines, and provisions. "In the combat the rebels had a captain and twenty-eight soldiers killed and fifty-seven wounded. The Spaniards had seventy killed and 107 wounded, among the latter Captain Castelvi, of the Veguita Guerillas." Now this is the most definite and certain account of a fight we have had for a long time.