THE SPANIARDS IN CUBA.
DIARY OP AH ENGLISH GENTLEMAN IN CUBA.
Habana, January 24, 1897.
How can this city be described 1 There are houses like palaces and hovels as miserable as I have anywhere seen, but;there is no each thing as a decent pavement, and water — of tan very foal — liea abont everywhere. Yet people wonder that disease is so prevalent. There are at present 8000 sick and wounded soldiers in and about TLibana, and troops are avery where— inspections, reviews, parades innumerable. Many oE the soldiers are meve boye, and it ia sad to reflect how many of them will never see home again. Yet the city goes on its way as though nothing was happening, and that although witbin five or ten miles the insurgents hold the field", and rail communication is quite unsafe. The gayeafc of g»y turn-oats are to be SS6EI, and tbo theatre and balls go on as uscal. Habana has expanded greatly in the last 20 years, but -it is still Habana. The loot walks in some of the older streets- are evidently intended £or cat* and t dcgs ; they are oE no use to men. Two enormous warehouses on tbe-bay are used as hospitals. The wnt3r" is' covered with a foul, scum, and the uoe does'not 'flash :it. bat; -How wonnds caar *>?er be cured ia such hospitals- I cannot imagine. Oas steamer ihia wetk took home to Spain 112 inyalids, and another SCO. The newfcpapera print a telegram from Madrid that rhe Dake of Yefcuan says tiie provinces of Habana, and Matarzas &re cearly pacified, and permiseion is given to make the crops. Now, " nearly pscified " means, I suppose, what I have been describing. The insurgents ara within four miles of this city; they make all rail traffic quite a lottery, and actually interfere with the country supply of milk. The encounters reported here seem to result in two dead on one side and qbg dead and one'woanded on the other. The railway line from hers to Mat&nzas is just protected by troop?, all tha way along, of course. Habana itself is very strong, and is secured by sea, so that the insurgents cannot seriously threaten it as they have no naval power. . . , Day aiter day passes and nobody knows what is doing as to the insurrection. All agree that no mercy is being shown on either side, but whether one or other is getting the victory none can tel>, and meanwhile sickness and wounds must be doing their work— that is certain. When any harvest work can be done is altogether uncertain, and already two years.' crops are as good as lost to this i3land. Many people have ! left, and more- will follow. . . . Ia ■Habana I met a large estate owner, who deBcribed the life now being led on his estate. It is a very large one, and has on it a central factory with a great value of machinery for grinding and making sugar. He grouad very little or nothing last season, and has been busy all the past year in thoroughly defending his property. There is now a dry ditch, Bft deep and 'Bft wide, all round the central part of the estate, and the ground is so cleared that cane cannot be . burned from the outside of this ditch. Nor j can any rebel force easily cross it. There is an inner ditch round the house and factory, and the entrances are kept constantly guarded. The village for the hands is in one corner of the square, protected by the out- j Bide ditch. The proprietor has 50 soldiers kept on the estate, for whom, of course, he pays, and he does nob know yet whether he will be able tb~grind this season or when he j has permission to grind like others ; but no i one knows how far he may count on beirg unhindered by insurgents. In this case, I ana. told, most .of tbe cane has been burnt by the rebels, and the loss has been enormous. Meanwhile the estate owner goes in and out of Habana continually by rail, the train being under armed escort, and precedfid by a pilot engine ; and he thinks it strange that anyone should regard such a journey as risky, although not. a month : since a train was derailed on this line. , Hardly anyone expects that more than ,20 per cent, of a crop will be made this season. Yet' the Spaniards say we have advanced much in the matter of the insurrection. Matanzas, 5. — Arrived here in the early morning. All round the city are little forts, " fuertinas," each containing some dozen soldiers, well armed and quite able, according to Spanish accounts, to stand als days' siege. ' These forts are square, of wood, with two or three storeys, and a lookout for the sentry above. The men (some of them seem mere boys of 15) sleep in hammocHfe,' and have certainly not too much room.' I went into ons o£ |Sese forts about one. and a-half miles out of Matanzas. Jusb beyond it ib a small estate for cattle, pig, aad .poultry-rearing;: and on one side of. the
estate is a hill (now being cleared so us to destroy all shelter). From this hiil a few months ago the rebels fired on Mat&nzas railway station. Matanzas is a city of isome 50,000 inhabitants ; now crowded with boldiera and people driven in from the villages and country. Business is at a complete standstill, and public buildings are all converted into hospitals, and bo one knows how many sick and wounded are in them — more sick than wounded. A very large sugar reficery with American machinery capable of turning out 700 Backs a day, warehouses, lighten?, stores, offices, the same story everywhere. . . . The Spanish account of present tactics is that General Weyler is determined, to clear the country of people s as be considers that tha country paople, evtjn when not under arms, are rrfbstly rebel sympathisers. He is therefore driving them all into the towns, burning huts everywhere, and destroying gardens so that the rebels may be starved into submission. We saw burning: going on all along the coast and smelt flea miles off. When the rebellion at the wess end of the island is finished with there still remains the east and larger portion of tba island, which is more thickly peopled, more wocdy and niountainoup, to deal with. The rebel tactfes are to weary out; the Spaniards. The latter say th%t the rebels are a mere handful ofmen, and that fighting with them is like shooting hari»s ; but tbe rebals ci&im to have many thousand men under arms in the fiald. Ifc is certain fchafc Americans have found the weapons for this wretched war.
From MstaEzais sailed for Oardenas, the entrance to which is difficult owicg to bargos and shoals between them. About 12 miles from Cardenas we look on board a. pilot, and under bis guidance got aground, and remained i,*vo and a-half hoars churniog up the sand with the screw and waiting for the tide to float us off. At 8 o'clock we got off and cam? to anchor nine miles from Cardenas town—lighters all ready, &c. There was uo steamer or Hig to be had, and about 4 a.m. our mate and steward left by a small sailing boat to do ship's, business. They only took eight hours in arriving at Oardenaa, the weather being dead calm. Pilots here have hardly any work. Cambers of people must be starving, and all round clouds of amoke tell the tale of luin.
(To be continued.)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18980414.2.160
Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 2302, 14 April 1898, Page 53
Word Count
1,270THE SPANIARDS IN CUBA. Otago Witness, Issue 2302, 14 April 1898, Page 53
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