The Cruise of the Thetis: A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

  THE WAR-CLOUD OVERSHADOWS THE HACIENDA MONTIJO.

  For the first fortnight or three weeks following the evanishment ofSenor Alvaros a considerable degree of uneasiness prevailed at thehacienda Montijo, the inmates of which daily looked for the appearanceof some emissary of the Spanish Government, charged with the duty ofinvestigating the circumstances connected with the disappearance of animportant Spanish official: and it was recognised that not only wouldthe enquiries of such an individual be difficult to reply to, but alsothat his presence would incidentally result in the discovery that themembers of the Montijo family, instead of being at Fernando Po, were--with one exception--at home again. It was admitted to be a contingencythat needed careful yet firm handling, and after much consideration aplan was evolved by Jack and Carlos which it was believed would dealeffectively with the difficulty, and the necessary steps were taken.But as day after day passed without bringing upon them the complicationwhich they apprehended, their uneasiness rapidly lessened, until atlength a day arrived when the conviction forced itself upon them thatthe attention of the Spanish Government was so fully occupied with otherand much more important matters that the disappearance of Senor Alvarosseemed likely to be permitted to pass without especial notice. Andthereupon Jack undertook to pay a visit to Don Ramon Bergera in Havana,with the object of ascertaining, as far as possible, what was theattitude of the Spanish official mind upon the subject. He accordinglyset out for Pinar del Rio one morning after early breakfast, and arrivedin Havana the same afternoon, intending to return to the haciendaMontijo on the following day. But he remained in Havana a fullfortnight, during which he and Don Ramon learned many things--amongthem, the facts that Senor Alvaros was solely responsible for the arrestand attempted transportation of the Montijos, and also for the seizureof the estate--neither of which acts had been reported to the Capitan-General, or been officially recorded: and that, doubtless because ofthese important reasons, when he had set out on his last journey tovisit the estate which he had thus secretly seized, he had omitted tomention to anyone his intentions, his destination, or the probableduration of his absence, with the result that eventually, when theaccumulated arrears of his work at length attracted attention andprovoked enquiry, nobody could throw the least light upon hiswhereabouts. The conviction had therefore at length been arrived atthat--the man being well-known as possessing a singularly arrogant,overbearing, and irascible disposition--he had perished in some obscureand, quite possibly, discreditable quarrel; and his post as Governor ofLa Jacoba Prison had been given to another man. These particulars hadbeen gleaned by dint of very patient and careful enquiry on the part ofDon Ramon, so judiciously conducted that not a particle of suspicion hadanywhere been raised that any enquiry at all was being made: and withthem Jack returned to the hacienda and restored tranquillity to theminds of its inhabitants, for it had now been made clear not only thatthey might dismiss all apprehension of embarrassing enquiry concerningthe fate of Senor Alvaros, but also that nobody was likely to disputeDon Hermoso's right to retain his own property.

  But no sooner were their minds relieved upon this point than they werefilled with apprehension on another, namely, poor Senora Montijo'smental condition, which seemed to steadily grow worse. For the firstfew months of the unfortunate lady's affliction she had been very quiet,giving no trouble at all, and appearing to suffer chiefly from completeloss of memory. But now, just at the moment when Jack and Carlos werecompleting their preparations to take the field with the rebel forces, achange for the worse occurred: her memory returned to herintermittently, bringing with it the recollection of her daughter'sfate, and then, by some peculiar mental process, nothing would consolethe unhappy mother but the presence and companionship of her son andJack; and if the lads happened to be both absent when these paroxysms ofrevived memory occurred, the poor lady quickly became plunged into acondition of such abysmal despair and such maniacal violence that shewas for the time being a menace to herself and everybody else. Nobodybut Carlos or Jack seemed to have the power of soothing her, andsometimes the combined efforts of both were needed: thus it came aboutthat many months passed, during which the two youths felt themselvesconstrained to remain within call, and to devote themselves to the taskof alleviating the misery of the unhappy lady.

  Meanwhile, the rebellion, which had arisen in the first instance in theprovince of Santiago, was for some time confined to the eastern end ofthe island. At the moment of its outbreak Spain had a garrison of someseventeen thousand men in Cuba, which was an amply sufficient force tohave stamped out the rising, had the authorities dealt with itenergetically. But they either could not, or would not, see, until itwas too late, that serious trouble was impending; and when at lengththis fact was recognised, and the garrison raised to some thirtythousand men, the rebellion had made such headway that the rebelsalready had a force of four thousand men in the field, with Maximo Gomezas its Commander-in-chief, and Antonio Maceo as second in command. Atthis time, however, very few whites had actually taken up arms in therevolutionary cause, for Gomez was a native of San Domingo, while Maceowas a mulatto, and the whites in Cuba entertained the same objection toserving under coloured men that is to be found practically all the worldover. But this was more than compensated for by the great accession ofcoloured recruits attracted to the insurgent ranks by the appearance ofMaceo in a position of authority. At the same time secret committeeswere formed in every town in Cuba for the purpose of preaching thegospel of revolt, with the result that the whole province of Santiagoand the greater part of Puerto Principe quickly became aflame.

  General Martinez Campos, the Capitan-General of the island, at lengthbegan to realise the increasing gravity of the situation, and sent tohis home government a report to the effect that, in consequence of therapid spread of the rebellion, it would be absolutely necessary tooccupy every province of the island in force, and to vigorously attackthe insurgents wherever met with in the field; and that, to do thiseffectively, he must have still more troops. Accordingly, more troopswere dispatched, with the result that by the end of the year 1895 theSpanish arms in Cuba totalled no less than one hundred thousand men,while the rebel strength had increased to ten thousand, who, however,were very badly in need of arms, ammunition, and stores. ConsequentlyMilsom, in the _Thetis_, was kept busy at this time picking up supplieswherever he could get them, and then smuggling them into the island witha boldness and ingenuity that completely baffled all the efforts of theSpaniards to detect him.

  The proportion of Spanish troops to the revolutionary forces was at thistime, it will be observed, as ten to one. This, on paper, appears to beenormous, yet it was not so in reality: for, whereas the Cubans were allnative to the soil and inured to the climate, and were, moreover,familiar with the topography of the country, the Spanish soldiers weremostly young, raw recruits, poor shots, quite new to service in theTropics, unacclimatised, of poor stamina, and therefore peculiarlyliable to fall victims to the fever and dysentery which follow uponexposure to tropical rain. Moreover, they were badly fed, and worselooked after; the great disparity between the strength of the two forceswas consequently much more apparent than real. Then, too, the Spanishofficers were mostly of very indifferent quality: they suffered from thesame climatic disabilities as their men; the heat enervated them to suchan extent that they could not be induced to take the least trouble aboutanything, or undertake the least labour; they made no attempt to improvethe quality of their men's shooting; they were lax in the enforcement ofdiscipline--save, perhaps, in the exaction of a proper measure ofrespect from their subordinates; they were strangers to the island andquite ignorant of its topography, and they were too indolent to attemptto learn anything of it; and, lastly, the maps with which they had beensupplied were even worse than useless, for they were absolutelymisleading. Thus the insurgents experienced no difficulty in eludingthe pursuit of the Spanish forces, and in luring them, time after time,into carefully prepared traps, from which escape was only possibl
e atthe cost of heavy loss.

  The insurgents were careful that news of their oft-repeated successesagainst the Spanish troops should be published throughout the island,despite the desperate efforts of the authorities to suppress it; and, asa consequence, new recruits were constantly being added to their ranks.The insurrectionary movement grew apace; and at length a provisionalGovernment was formed, with the Marquez de Cisneros at its head, asPresident of the Cuban Republic. The first act of the new Governmentwas to divide up the entire island into different districts; and overeach district was appointed a civilian as Prefect. It was of courseonly natural that the Prefecture of the Pinar del Rio district should beoffered to Don Hermoso Montijo; but when he was made fully acquaintedwith the views of the provisional Government he declined it, for heconsidered that these views on certain points were so extreme as torender the Government unpopular, and to bring absolute ruin upon a veryimportant section of the community, the planters to wit. One of theproposals of the new Government was to impose certain taxes for thepurpose of raising funds wherewith to carry on the revolutionarymovement, and to this there could of course be no reasonable objection;but when it was further proposed that non-payment of those taxes shouldbe punished by the destruction of the buildings and crops and theseizure of the live stock of defaulters, Don Hermoso asserted that suchaction was altogether too drastic, and savoured too much of tyranny tomeet with his approval, and he firmly declined to associate himself inany way with it, electing to continue instead to serve the movement, asheretofore, by lavish contributions of money, and the assistance of theyacht.

  The next step of the insurgent leaders was also one of which Don Hermosovery strongly disapproved, and against which he passionately pleaded--invain, with the result that a certain feeling of estrangement, not veryfar removed from enmity, arose between him and the leading spirits ofthe revolution. The latter, it appeared, had conceived the idea that solong as industry was permitted to flourish in the island, so long wouldSpain be able to find the necessary funds for the maintenance of a largearmy in Cuba; but that the moment industry ceased, the fountain ofrevenue must run dry, and the troops must be withdrawn. They thereforedetermined to march their forces right through the island to Havana,destroying everything before them; and this terrible resolution theycarried into effect, with the result that their track became a long lineof burnt cane fields and fire-blackened buildings, the owners of which,whether Spaniards or Cubans, foes or sympathisers, were of courseabsolutely ruined. The Capitan-General, with ten thousand men, vainlystrove to check this terrible advance, but the insurgents easily eludedhim and forced their way into the western provinces; with the resultthat the home Government superseded Campos, sending out in his steadGeneral Don Valeriano y Nicolan Weyler, a man of wide militaryexperience, and possessing a sinister and unenviable reputation forenergy and relentless severity.

  The dispatch of such a man as General Weyler to Cuba was undoubtedlydue, in a very great measure, to the fact that the United States ofAmerica, keeping a watchful eye upon the struggle going on, as it were,at its very doors, manifested a rapidly increasing disposition tosympathise with the insurgents, fighting gallantly for their libertyagainst an almost overwhelming force. This exhibition of sympathy,which the Americans took no especial pains to conceal, was highlyoffensive to Spain, and unquestionably went far toward strengthening herdetermination to suppress the revolution by force of arms; wherefore shenot only dispatched General Weyler to Cuba, but also sent with and afterhim troops sufficient to raise the Spanish army in the island to thenumber of two hundred and thirty-five thousand men, including guerrillasand volunteers.

  Meanwhile, Antonio Maceo, with a force of nearly four thousand men, hadpenetrated so far west as the province of New Filipipa, where heestablished himself in a stronghold among the fastnesses of the Sierrasde los Organos, or Organ Mountains, from which he swept down at frequentintervals, first upon one town in the neighbourhood and then uponanother, harassing and cutting up the Spanish garrisons in them, andgenerally making of himself a thorn in the flesh of Weyler. The spot inwhich he had established himself was distant only some ten miles, as thecrow flies, from the hacienda Montijo; and he had no sooner made himselfcomfortable in his new quarters than he surprised and slightlydiscomposed the inhabitants of the casa by paying them a flying visit.He had been one of the most determined advocates, and the most ruthlessexecutant, of the Republican Government's policy of destructivesuppression of the island's industries, and Don Hermoso's firmopposition to that policy had created something very nearly approachingto bad blood between the two; but now, when it was too late, he probablyrecognised the disastrous mistake that had been made, for it soon becameapparent that the chief, if not the sole, object of his visit was toendeavour to regain Don Hermoso's good opinion. But the attempt was notwholly successful; and he did not repeat his visit. The presence ofMaceo and four thousand very imperfectly disciplined guerrilla troops,most of whom were coloured men, not too careful in their discriminationbetween friend and foe, was a double menace of a very serious characterto Don Hermoso: for, on the one hand, they were certain, sooner orlater, to attract a large body of Spaniards to the neighbourhood, forthe purpose of hunting them down; while, on the other, should thepatriots find themselves hard pressed, it was quite on the cards thatthey might take it into their heads to sweep down upon the estate anddestroy it utterly, in order to prevent the possibility of the Spaniardsseizing it and operating therefrom against them. These twopossibilities were anxiously discussed over the dinner-table of the casaMontijo; and it was finally decided that on the following day stepsshould be taken to put the estate into a condition of defence againstboth parties.

  Now there were three--and only three--possible ways of approach to theestate, the first being by the main road from Pinar del Rio; the secondby the cross-country route which Jack and Carlos had followed whenriding into Pinar del Rio on the occasion of their intervention in the_James B. Potter_ incident; and the third by the route which Alvaroswas supposed to have taken on the occasion of his flight, this being theroad from the mountains by which Maceo had travelled. This last was anexceedingly difficult route, so difficult, indeed, that there wereseveral spots at which it could be made absolutely impassable with verylittle difficulty, the most suitable of all, perhaps, being at thewaterfall near which Alvaros was supposed to have met his death. Atthis spot the road--or, rather, path--crossed the ravine by way of anenormous overhanging rock which jutted out from the hillside immediatelyover the place where the stream flung itself down into the gorgebeneath; and, even so, it needed a man with a steady head and goodnerves to traverse it, for it was necessary to get from the overhangingrock across a chasm of nearly twelve feet in width to another large rockon the opposite side. A careful examination of this spot convinced Jackthat a few pounds of blasting powder, judiciously placed beneath theoverhanging mass of rock, would send it hurtling down into the gorgebeneath and thus effectually bar all passage in that direction; and thiswas immediately done. The carriage road from Pinar del Rio could bealmost, as easily defended, for, at a few yards from the main road, theprivate road giving access to Don Hermoso's estate was carried across awide stream by means of a single-arched masonry bridge, which bridgecould be readily destroyed by means of dynamite; and Jack soon made allthe arrangements for its destruction, if necessary, at a moment'snotice. As for the cross-country road, it, too, led across a stream,much too deep and swift to be forded, and only passable at the pointwhere Jack, Carlos, and their guide, Carnero, had jumped their horsesacross it. The country on the far side was open for more than a mile,affording not sufficient cover to shelter a rabbit, much less a man; andJack was of opinion that a Maxim, mounted in a small earthwork whichmight be thrown up by a few men in less than an hour, would prove amplysufficient to defend the passage against any force that would be likelyto be sent against them. Three days, therefore, after Maceo's visit tothe hacienda saw their preparations for defence complete, save in theimportant matter of the Maxims and t
heir ammunition; and two of these,together with a number of rifles, came to hand some three weeks later,Jack having undertaken to proceed to the Laguna de Cortes and thereawait the arrival of the _Thetis_ with another cargo of contraband ofwar which she was to land at that spot. The stuff had been purchasedwith Don Hermoso's money, and Jack therefore felt justified inappropriating as much of it as he considered might be required. He alsocommandeered one of half a dozen very handsome twelve-pounder fieldguns, together with a considerable quantity of ammunition. And when hegot back with his spoils he took upon himself the duties of musketryinstructor to the negroes on the estate, who were knocked off work anhour earlier every evening for the purpose; and, by dint of the exerciseof almost inexhaustible patience, he contrived to make very excellentmarksmen of a good percentage of them.

  Meanwhile, with the exception above referred to, events, so far as thoseon the estate were concerned, pursued the even tenor of their way;nothing in the least out of the common happened, and the SenoraMontijo's mental condition had by this time so far improved that thesociety of Carlos and Jack was no longer necessary to her welfare.

  But they both remained on the estate, for the war had now come almost totheir own door, and their services were as likely to be useful wherethey were as anywhere else. News came to them at irregular intervals,and there by and by reached them the intelligence that, in order toisolate Maceo and prevent his return to the eastern provinces of theisland, General Weyler was constructing a _trocha_, or entrenchment,with blockhouses and wire entanglements all complete, from Mariel on thenorth coast to Majana on the south--that is to say, across the narrowestpart of the island--some sixteen or seventeen miles in length. The nextnews to hand was that the _trocha_ was completed, and manned by twentythousand men! And the next was that Weyler was marching ten thousandtroops through the province, with the object of finding and destroyingMaceo and his men--and any other rebels, actual or suspected, whom theymight chance to find! Jack and Carlos felt that the time had arrivedfor them to hold themselves on the qui vive.

  They were not kept very long in suspense. A few days later, as theywere about to sit down to dinner, a negro peon presented himself, withthe report that a large body of Spanish troops, having marched down theroad from Pinar del Rio, were at that moment pitching their camp on theplain, some two miles away; and just as the party had finished theirmeal, and were on the point of rising from the table, the beat ofhorses' hoofs, approaching the house, was heard, with, a little later,the jingle of accoutrements; and presently footsteps, accompanied by theclink of spurs and the clanking of a scabbard, were heard ascending thesteps leading to the veranda. The next moment the major-domo flung openthe door and, with the announcement of "Capitan Carera", ushered in afine, soldierly looking man, attired in a silver-braided crimson jacketand shako, and light-blue riding breeches, tucked into knee-bootsadorned with large brass spurs.

  The newcomer bowed with easy courtesy as he entered, and then paused,apparently taken somewhat aback as his eye fell on the Senora. Hequickly recovered himself, however, and, addressing himself to DonHermoso, asked if he might have the honour of a few minutes' privatespeech with the owner of the estate; to which Don Hermoso replied byconducting his visitor to the room in which he was wont to transact hisbusiness. The interview was very brief, and when it was ended thesoldier bowed himself out and, descending the steps, took his horse fromthe orderly who had accompanied him: then, mounting, he went clatteringaway down the private road leading through the tobacco fields to thehighway, and thence to the distant camp.

  "Well, what is the news, Pater?" demanded Carlos, as Don Hermosopresently returned to the dining-room, looking very pale and agitated.

  "The news, my son, is this," answered Don Hermoso, his voice quiveringwith anger: "General Echague, who is in command of the troops which havejust encamped in our neighbourhood, has sent a message to me regretfullyintimating that it will be his duty to destroy this house, together withall its warehouses and outbuildings of every description, to prevent itsseizure by the rebels who are known to be in this neighbourhood. And,as an act of grace, he gives me until noon to-morrow to remove myhousehold and belongings to such a place of safety as I may select!"

  "Oh! he does, does he?" retorted Carlos. "Awfully kind of him, I'msure! And what answer did you return to the message?"

  "I simply replied that I thanked General Echague for the time given me,and that I would do my utmost to complete my preparations by the hournamed," answered Don Hermoso.

  "That is all right!" commented Carlos grimly. "I think we can completeour preparations by noon to-morrow. What say you, Jack?"

  "I say," answered Jack, "that we can not only complete our preparationsin the time given us, but have plenty of time for play afterwards. As amatter of fact, our preparations are practically complete already. Wehave nothing to do except blow up the bridge, and that we will do assoon as you, Don Hermoso, and the Senora are far enough on your way toPinar to be safe from pursuit. Then we will teach these arrogantSpaniards a much-needed lesson on the desirability of modifying theirtyrannical methods."

  "What do you mean, Jack?" demanded Don Hermoso. "Do you imagine for amoment that I will seek safety in flight, and leave you two lads todefend my property for me?"

  "No, Senor, I don't mean that at all," answered Jack. "What I mean isthis: the natural situation of the place is happily such that, with thepreparations already made for its defence, and perhaps one or two morewhich we can easily make to-morrow morning, we can without difficultyhold the estate against a much stronger force than that encamped on theplain below; and therefore there is not the slightest reason why youshould not remove the Senora from the turmoil and excitement of thefight which is sure to come to-morrow."

  "I see," said Don Hermoso. "It is the same thing, however, stated indifferent words. `The turmoil and excitement of the fight', as you putit, will scarcely be perceptible here, in the house, and will thereforenot be likely to have any injurious effect upon my wife, who must beinduced to remain indoors while we are arguing the point with theSpaniards. I shall therefore remain and take my share of the risks withyou."

  And from this resolution Don Hermoso was not to be moved.