Santiago de Cuba. Later an engagement took place between the American force and a column of Spanish troops which, had been sent against the landing party. The Spaniards were driven back.

The Marines at Guantanamo.

Lieutenant-Colonel R. W. Huntington's battalion of marines landed from the transport Panther on Friday, June 10, and encamped on the hill guarding the abandoned cable station at the entrance to the outer harbor of Guantanamo. On Saturday afternoon a rush attack was made on them by a detachment of Spanish regulars and guerrillas, and for thirteen hours the fighting was almost continuous, until re-enforcements were landed from the Marblehead.

The engagement began with desultory firing at the pickets, a thousand yards inland from the camp. Captain Spicer's company was doing guard duty and was driven in, finally rallying on the camp and repulsing the enemy at 5 o'clock. The sky was blanketed with clouds, and when the sun set a gale was blowing out seaward. Night fell thick and impenetrable. The Spanish squads concealed in the chaparral cover had the advantage, the Americans on the ridge furnishing fine targets against the sky and the white tents.

The Spaniards fought from cover until midnight, discoverable only at flashes, at which the marines fired volleys. Shortly after midnight came the main attack. The Spaniards made a gallant charge up the southwest slope, but were met by repeated volleys from the main body and broke before they were one-third of the way up the hill; but they came so close at points that there was almost a hand-to-hand struggle. The officers used their revolvers. Three Spaniards got through the open formation to the edge of the camp. Colonel Jose Campina, the Cuban guide, discharged his revolver, and they, finding themselves without support, beat a hasty retreat down the reverse side of the hill. During this assault Assistant Surgeon John Blair Gibbs was killed. He was shot in the head in front of his own tent, the farthest point of attack. He fell into the arms of Private Sullivan and both dropped. A second bullet threw the dust in their faces. Surgeon Gibbs lived ten minutes, but he did not again regain consciousness.. Four Americans were killed and one wounded in this engagement.

Sunday brought no rest. Every little while the p-a-t of a Mauser would be heard, and a spatter of dust on the camp hillside would show where the bullet struck. During the day the enemy kept well back,

scattering a few riflemen through the trees to keep up a desultory fire on the camp. There was no massing of forces, evidently for fear of shells from the Marblehead, which lay in the harbor close by. But when night came on again the Spanish forces were greatly augmented and in the dark were bolder in their attacks.

Lieutenant Neville was sent with a small squad of men to dislodge the advance pickets of the enemy, and his men followed him with a will. The Spaniards, who had been potting at every shadow in the camp, fled when the American pickets came swinging down their way. As the Americans pressed along the edge of the steep hill, following a blind trail, they nearly fell into an ambush. There was a sudden firing from all directions, and an attack came from all sides.

Sergeant-Major Henry Good was shot through the right breast and soon died. The Americans were forced back upon the edge of the precipice and an effort was made to rush them over, but without success. As soon as they recovered from the first shock and got shelter in the breaks of the cliff their fire was deadly. Spaniard after Spaniard went down before American bullets and the rush was checked almost as suddenly as it was begun, causing the enemy to fall back. The Americans swarmed after the fleeing Spaniards, shooting and cheering as they charged, and won a complete victory. The Spanish forces left fifteen dead upon the field. The American loss was two killed and four wounded.

The night attack was picturesque, and a striking spectacle—the crack of the Mausers, tongues of fire from every bush encircling the camp, the twitter of the long steel bullets overhead, while the machine guns down on the water were ripping open the pickets, and the crash of the field guns could be heard as they were driving in canister where the fire of the Spaniards was the thickest. Then there was the screech of the Marblehead's shells as she took a hand in the fight, and the sharp, quick flashing of the rapid-firing one-pounder guns from the ships' launches.

On Tuesday the brave marines, who had been exposed for three days and nights to the fire of a foe they could but blindly see, weary of a kind of warfare for which they were not trained, went into the enemy's hiding place and inflicted disastrous punishment. The primary object of the expedition was to destroy the tank which provided the enemy with water. There are three ridges over the hills between the camp from which the Americans and their Cuban allies started and the sea. In the valley between the second and third was the water tank. The

The system of signaling in the army has become a science. There is one system of signaling by flags, known as "wigwagging," and another by hellography. "Hello" comes from the Greek word "helios," meaning the sun. This system is becoming more popular, and the signals are flashed by the use of the mirror.

Spanish headquarters were located at cross-roads between the first and second ridges, and it was against this place that a detachment of fifty marines and ten Cubans under Lieutenants Mahoney and Magill was sent. Their instructions were to capture and hold this position. Captain Elliot with ninety marines and fifteen Cubans went east over the last range of hills, and Captain Spicer with the same number of men went to the west. A fourth party of fifty marines and a Cuban guide under command of Lieutenant Ingate made a detour and secured a position back of Lieutenant Mahoney.

The first fighting was done by the men under Lieutenant Magill with the second platoon of Company E. These parted from the others, going over the first hill to the second one. They had advanced but a short distance when they came to a heliograph station guarded by a company of Spaniards. Shooting began on both sides, the Mausers of the Spanish and the guns of the Americans snapping in unison. Our men had toiled up the hillside in the boiling sun, but they settled down to shooting as steadily and as sturdily as veterans could have done. The skirmish lasted fifteen minutes. At the end of this time the Spaniards could no longer stand the methodical, accurate shooting of Magill's men, and they ran helter-skelter, leaving several dead upon the field. Lieutenant Magill took possession of the heliograph outfit without the loss or injury of a man.

But this was in truth only a skirmish, and the real fighting was at hand. Captains Spicer and Elliot and Lieutenant Mahoney led their men up the second range of hills. A spattering of bullets gave note that the news of their coming was abroad, but they toiled up to the top of the hill. Here they found the Spanish camp situated on a little ridge below them. There was one large house, the officers' quarters, and around this was a cluster of huts, in the center of which was the water tank which they had come to destroy. Quickly they moved into line of battle, and advanced down the mountain, the enemy's bullets singing viciously, but going wildly about them.

Gradually the Americans and Cubans descended the slope, shooting as they went, and closing in upon the enemy in hiding about the huts and in the brush. Then the order came to make ready for a bayonet charge, but it had scarcely been given when the Spaniards broke from cover and ran, panic-stricken, for a clump of brush about one hundred yards further on. Then there was shooting quick and fast. There were dozens of Spanish soldiers who did not reach the thicket, for the American fire was deadly, and man after man was seen to fall.