SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

Western Star, Issue 2218, 1 July 1898, Page 7

SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR

— Washington. Mr Roosevelt’s cowboys commanded by Colonel Wood and a detachment of regulars under General Young started to dislodge the Spanish troops under General Lirareas from the heights of Savilla. The heat was intense. Many of the troops were prostrated, and the heavy equipment had to be abandoned. The cactus bushes and the thick undergrowth rendered marching a difficult operation. When the thickest part of the jungle was reached the cowboys fell into an ambuscade. An invisible enemy fired upon them killing Hamilton Fish and Captains Capron and Luna. This momentarily demoralised the Americans, causing some to fire on their comrades in the confusion. Mr Roosevelt and Colonel Wood soon rallied the men.

After an hour’s sharp fighting they found the Spaniards with a mule which was carrying the only Hotchkiss gun. The mule bolted into the bush and could not be utilised. Seventeen Americans were killed including several New York swells. Roosevelt was slightly wounded in the eves and ears.

* Mr Marshall the correspondent of the New York Journal was mortally wounded in the spine but calmly smoked a cigarette while he dictated an account of the battle for his paper. General Young’s further advance was conducted with greater camion, the enemy being completely defeated. It is intended to use Santiago as a base for an expedition to Porto Rica.

London. Camara’s squadron has been sighted at Port Said.

Reports from Washington state that if the Spanish vessels enter the Suez Canal the best ships of Admiral Sam* pson’s squadron will be despatched to bombard the Spanish Mediterranean porta and the Canary Islands. Mr Theodore Roosevelt’s cowboys were not long in seeking a fight on being landed in Cuba. Mr Roosevelt resigned hi a place as chairman ot the Board of Naval Strategy and Assistant Secretary to the Navy, in order to raise the regiment of cowbovs. He refused to accept the colonelcy, because, as he thinks, he is not technically equal to the place, but took the position of second in command. It is Roosevelts regiment all the same, however. So many were the applications for enrolment that two regiments had to be formed instead of one. Among many motives that have led President M'Kinley reluctantly to consent to a vigorous, immediate prosecution of the war was an apprehension or reciprocal excesses between Spaniards and the insurgents. Patience and famine would no doubt bring the enemy to terms, but at the cost of almost unspeakable horrors. The danger in landing a large force in Cuba in summer is not the yellow Spanish flag, but yellow Jack —the vorailo. But, on the other hand, as soon as the rainy season has fairly begun there may come at any timea tornada which would entirely wreck the blockading squadron, and thus give the Spaniards a new leasetransient, of course, but none the less distessing—of power. The loss of 10,000 or 20,000 men by fever might be a far less cosily disaster, even in lives, than the shipwreck of the main fleet and the long war that would follow.