CHAPTER XIX.

ANOTHER STROKE FOR FREEDOM.

The Beginning of the Revolt-Martial Law Declared in Santiago and Ma tanzas-Arrival of Campos-The Blacks as Soldiers-No Caste Prejudices-General Santocildes Killed-A Story of Maceo-Campos' Campaign Fails-He Returns to Spain.

It was the intention of the insurgents to begin operations in the six provinces on the same date, but at the appointed time three of them failed to carry out the plan, and in only one was the aspect at all threatening. In Havana and Matanzas the Spanish officials had no difficulty in suppressing the insurrectionists, and the leader in the former province, the editor of a newspaper, accepted a pardon and returned to his work.

In Santiago, however, which is thinly settled, the movement gained ground steadily. The landing of a party of revolutionists from San Domingo aroused the patriots, and were welcomed warmly, being sup plied with re-enforcements wherever they appeared. The government professed to be merely annoyed, nothing more, and pretended to look upon the patriots as mere brigands. Calleja became alarmed at last when the determination of the insurgents became known, and pro claimed martial law in Santiago and Matanzas, and sent forces to both provinces. He could put only nine thousand men in the field, however, and had only seven gunboats for coast duty at his command. The commissary arrangements were miserable, and frequently caused the interruption of important movements. The insurgents were most ubiquitous, and would appear here and there without the slightest warning, making raids on plantations, which they plundered, and from which they enticed away the laborers, disappearing in the swamps, where pursuit was impossible, and appearing again in a day or so in some unex pected spot, and repeating the same maneuvers. In this manner they terrorized the loyalists, and ruined their prospects of raising a crop, and as many depended solely upon the soil for their living this method of warfare struck them a vital blow.

At the end of March, 1895, Antonio Maceo, with sixteen comrades,

sailed from Costa Rica and landed at Baracoa, on the eastern end of the island. They were surprised by a Spanish cavalry, but kept up an intermittent fight for several hours, when Maceo managed to elude his enemies and escape. After living in the woods for ten days, making his way westward, he met a party of rebels, was recognized and welcomed with great enthusiasm. He took command of the insurgents in the neighborhood and began to get recruits rapidly. He engaged in several sharp encounters with the Spanish and did such effective service that the moral effect was noticed immediately. He and his brother Jose were made generals.

About the middle of April Maximo Gomez and Jose Marti landed from San Domingo at about the same point where the Maceos had landed. For days they were obliged to secrete themselves in a cave on account of the presence of the enemy's pickets, but they finally reached an insurgent camp, and Gomez entered upon his duties as commanderin-chief. The insurgents now had an experienced leader at their head, re-enforcements poured in, and they soon had a force of six thousand

men.

Arrival of Campos.

The government had issued new calls for troops, and in April no less than twenty-five thousand men were raised. Martinez Campos came over from Spain, arriving at Santiago on April 16, and went at once to Havana, where he relieved Calleja as captain-general. Campos was a veteran, and expected to crush the insurrection at once, but day by day his task grew more difficult.

Gomez and Maceo, instead of being driven hither and thither, led Campos a dance, and he was prevented from solidifying the two trochas he had formed. Gomez never attempted pitched battles or sieges, but harassed the enemy in every way possible, cutting off their convoys, picking them off in detail, getting up night alarms, and in every way annoying them. His hardened soldiers, especially the negroes, could stand hardships and still keep in good fighting condition, but with the Europeans, what between yellow fever and the constant alarms of war, it was a different story. No European soldier could live under the hardships and exposures which seemed to put life into the negro soldiers.

No Caste Prejudices.

It must be understood that there is no caste feeling between the negro and the pure-blooded Cuban. They march, eat and sleep side

by side.

Moreover, the negroes make excellent soldiers, with finer physique than the Cubans themselves, and equal powers of endurance. The Cuban is small in stature compared to the American soldier, but he is well set up, wiry, and apparently has unlimited staying powers. He frequently lives on one meal a day, and that a poor one, but he shows no signs whatever of being ill-fed; in fact, he seems to thrive on it, and he has an uncomfortable habit of marching six hours in the morning on an empty stomach, which would be fatal to the ordinary Anglo-Saxon.

About the first of July, Maceo, still in the province of Santiago, concentrated the forces in the Holguin district and moved against Bayamo, capturing one provision train after another that were en route to that place. Campos took fifteen hundred men, with General Santocildes second in command, and went to the relief of Bayamo. About the middle of July he was attacked several miles from Bayamo by Maceo with twenty-seven hundred rebels. He and his entire staff narrowly escaped capture, and only the bravery of General Santocildes averted this catastrophe. The brave general lost his life and the Spaniards were forced to fly, after having fought for five hours, surrounded on all sides by the rebels. They finally made their escape to Bayamo, the rear guard covering their retreat with great difficulty.

Flor Crombet had fallen in battle several weeks before this fight and Marti had been killed in an insignificant fight at Dos Rios. Gomez had passed into Camaguay to add fire to the insurrection and Maceo had been left in command in the province of Santiago. To him was Campos indebted for his defeat. He escaped capture as if by intuition. A new snare had been spread for him by Maceo after the death of Santocildes, and he was already within its meshes, when, intuitively divining the situation, he came to an about face and fled to Bayamo by an unused road, covered by impassable thickets in the rear of Maceo's victorious troops.

The Spaniards were rapidly re-enforced after the escape to Bayamo, and Maceo, with Quintin Bandero, began to fall back to his impregnable mountain retreat at Jarahuica. This was in the heart of Santiago de Cuba, over a hundred miles east of Bayamo and twenty-five miles northeast of the port of Santiago. His war-worn army needed rest, recruits, and supplies. Once in his mountain fastness, he was perfectly secure, News of his as no Spanish army would trust itself in the rocky range. movements had reached Santiago and a strenuous effort was being

made to head him off at San Luis, a railroad town fifteen miles northwest of that city. Nothing, however, escaped the observation of the Cuban general. With wonderful prescience he anticipated the movements of the Spaniards. His troopers were armed with machetes and the infantry with rifles and ammunition captured at Paralejo. Bandera commanded this band of blacks. The march had been terrific, and horses and men were nearly fagged. With sparse supplies the pace had been kept up for hours. The sun had gone down and the moon was flooding the fronds of the palms with pale, silvery light. Maceo held a short conference with Quintin Bandera, and not long afterward the blacks wheeled in column and disappeared.

Meantime the Cuban cavalry continued its course. By midnight it had reached Cemetery Hill, overlooking the town of San Luis. The moon was half way down the sky. Maceo sat upon his horse surveying the scene below him long and silently. The little town was aglow with electric lights and the whistle of locomotives resounded in the valley. Over three thousand Spanish troops were quartered in the town and their movements were plainly discernible. Trains were arriving hourly from Santiago, bearing strong re-enforcements. Through a field-glass Maceo watched the stirring scene. He turned the glass beyond the town and gazed through it patiently, betraying a trace of anxiety. Finally he alighted and conferred with Colonel Miro, his chief of staff. A moment afterward came the order to dismount. Three hundred troopers obeyed and were about to tether their horses when they were called to attention. A second order reached their ears. They were told to stand motionless, with both feet on the ground, and to await further orders with their right hands on their saddles. In the moonlight be. neath the scattered palms they stood as silent as if petrified.

A Story of Maceo.

Among them there was a newspaper correspondent who had known Maceo many years, and who had parted with him at Port Limon, in Central America, a few months before. He had joined the column just after the battle of Paralejo. In obedience to orders he stood with his arm over the back of his horse, blinking at the enlivening scene below him. Exhausted by the day's march, his eyes closed and he fourd it impossible to keep awake. A moment later he fastened the bridle to his foot, wrapped himself in his rubber coat, placed a satchel under his head, and fell asleep in the wet grass. The adjutant soon awoke him,

telling him that he had better get up, as they were going to have a fight. He thanked the adjutant, who told him there were over three thousand Spanish soldiers in San Luis and that it was surrounded with fourteen blockhouses. The correspondent soon curled himself on the grass a second time and was in a sound slumber, when he was again aroused by the adjutant, who told him he was in positive danger if he persisted in disobeying the order of General Maceo. A third time his heavy eyelids closed and he was in a dead sleep, when startled by a peremptory shake. Jesus Mascons, Maceo's secretary, stood over him. "Get up this instant," said he. "The general wants to see you immediately."

In a few seconds the correspondent was on his feet. The whistles were still blowing and the electric lights still glowing in the valley, and the moon was on the horizon. He went forward in some trepidation, fancying that the general was going to upbraid him for disobeying his orders. He was surprised to find him very pleasant. Maceo always spoke in a low tone, as he had been shot twice through the lungs. "Are you not hungry?" he asked.

"No," the correspondent replied, wondering what was in the wind. "I thought possibly you might want something to eat," General Maceo said, with a smile. "I have a boiled egg here and I want to divide it with you." As he uttered these words he drew out his machete and cut the egg straight through the center. Passing half of it to the corre spondent, he said: "Share it; it will do you good." The newspaper man thanked the general and they ate the egg in silence. He said afterward that the incident reminded him of General Marion's breakfast with a British officer. He had read the incident in Peter Parley's his tory of the revolution, when a schoolboy. Marion raked a baked sweet potato out of the ashes of a camp fire and divided it with his British guest. The officer regretted the absence of salt, and the correspondent said he experienced the same regret when he ate his portion of General Maceo's egg.

After munching the egg both men sat for some time observing the stirring scene in the valley below them. The moon had gone down, but in the glow of the electric lights they could see that the activity among the Spaniards was as great as ever. Suddenly Maceo turned to the correspondent and said abruptly: "Were you asleep when Jesus called you?"

"Oh, no," the correspondent replied, "I was not asleep; I was only just tired-that was all."