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Latest News from the Seat of War: Spanish

Still we find the interest centering upon the alleged trocha, which has become a synonym for doing nothing, and this lunar object is near the boundary, between the provinces of Havana and Pinar del Rio. Now this military line across the Island has been the favorite scheme of the Spanish tacticians from the first, though it has never embarrassed a rebel leader, and it is obviously useless unless the insurgent forces west of it are under the necessity of crossing it for lack of supplies or are hunted from their lairs with a vehement alacrity not indicated in any quarter. The line is of no assistance to the government except to prevent the escape of the insurgents and confine them to be hunted down, and they are in no hurry if appearances and accounts are trustworthy, and the hunters are sometimes hunted. There must be an insurmountable immobility about the Spanish troops, the lethargy established by incapacity in handling them, or something would happen in a few weeks when there are 50,000 Spaniards within twenty miles of 10,000 rebels--who have no base of operations and must live on the country and confront an enemy wherever they face the sea.

The rumors change hourly as to the disposition of the Spanish masses and Cuban cavalry that should be fighting. Why Gomez moved eastward so far in March, and for some weeks disappeared, has not been accounted for with precision, and therefore the news that he is coming back has hardly been received with enthusiasm. The statement that he was drilling recruits and resting his men may have been true, but does not cover so much time and space as is called for. Still he does not seem to be molested as he rides up and down the country.

There are several reasons assigned for Spanish delays that are not merely of a military or political character. It is said that the Spaniards lack dash, because their leaders are sluggish and corrupt, and there is a steady shower of stories that a great deal of money is to be made continually out of an army of 100,000 men in the field, and as many more about the towns. The insurgents claim to have bought cartridges even in Moro Castle, and carried them out in market baskets, exchanging for them cigars and silver; but there are so many vivid imaginations in Cuba that no one knows, and there are many who ought to care, but do not.

The brother-in-law of Campos has the reputation conferred upon him, with endless particulars of gossip, of making millions by standing between the army and the business men who have contracts for furnishing supplies, and the specific relation of mysteries goes, that the supremely important fort that dominates Havana from the land side, and is supposed to be always ready to stand a siege, bombard the city if necessary, was found by Weyler almost destitute of arms and ammunition. These reports are steadfastly asserted, and largely believed to have many facts to rest upon, because there is corruption in all sorts of Spanish administration, and the paralysis of the army thereby accounted for; but it would make an impression of vindictiveness to charge a nation with paresis.

Walter Dygert, the young American about whose imprisonment so much has been said, gives from his own experience an explanation of the profitableness of having crowded prisons, in these terms: "A child may weep at brambles' smart, And maidens when their lovers part; But woe worth a country when She sees the tears of bearded men." These lines by the poet, Scott, recurred to me when I saw aged men weeping and heart-broken at being separated from their families and shut up in this hell. But why does the Spanish government shut up helpless cripples and non-combatants? This is a question that puzzled me for some time, but I finally solved it, and will answer it after I have described the food and water.

A little after 6 in the morning we were, each of us, given a very small cup of coffee. The first meal of the day, if it could be called a meal, came after 9 o'clock. It consisted of a little rice, which was generally dirty; a few small potatoes, boiled with their skins on, and often partly rotten; a little piece of boiled salt beef, or beef cut up in small bits, with soup, just about half enough, and of the poorest quality. The meat was often spoiled, and unfit for anything but a vulture to eat. The second and last meal of the day came about 4 in the afternoon, and was the same as the first.

I had no opportunity to count the prisoners, but I learned that there were about 180 on the average confined there. I learned as definitely as I could, without seeing the contract, that a certain party had a contract to feed these prisoners at twenty-five cents each per day. Thus he gets $45 a day, and I learned that the food costs him only $7 to $8 a day, and, as some of the prisoners did the cooking, his profit can be readily seen. On such a contract he could afford to divide with the judge and army officers to keep the prison full.

Perhaps there is money in keeping camps as well as prison full, and in the detention of garrisons and the stick-in-the-mud strategy, but it is plain there is much rotten timber.