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

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

  WIPED OUT.

  With the first sign of dawn on the following morning the Montijo estatebecame a scene of bustling activity; for, as Jack observed, since fightthey must, they might as well begin early and get it over during thehours of daylight. Jack and Carlos, who had, with the tacit consent ofDon Hermoso, jointly assumed the responsibility of defending the place,had, on the previous night, held a short council of war, and had finallycome to the conclusion that of the two vulnerable points of attack whichstill remained, that which they had by common consent come to speak ofas the "cross-country route" was the weaker, since at one point theriver was so narrow that it could be jumped by a horseman, andconsequently was capable of being temporarily bridged without muchdifficulty. The defence of this position, therefore, Carlos insisted onpersonally undertaking, with the assistance of a force consisting oftwo-thirds of the negroes employed upon the estate; while Jack, with theother third, was to defend the approach by way of the main road and themined bridge. It was also arranged that Jack was to have the twelve-pounder field gun, while Carlos took the two Maxims.

  Now, it happened that while the two youths were making these finaldispositions, it occurred to Don Hermoso that the attack upon his estatewould afford Antonio Maceo and his four thousand guerrillas up there inthe mountains a splendid opportunity to come down and take the Spaniardsin the rear; he therefore retired to his own room, wrote a long letterto Maceo, in which he fully set forth all the particulars of thesituation, and dispatched it by the hands of a trusty negro by way ofthe ravine and gorge where Alvaros was supposed to have died, the negroasserting his ability to cross the gorge at the waterfall by means of apine tree which he would cut down in such a manner as to cause it tofall across the gap, and which he would afterwards throw into the abyss,returning to the estate, after the execution of his mission, with Maceoand his men.

  The reveille was just sounding in the Spanish camp when Jack, havingplaced his forces in position in open order behind a screen of bambooand scrub which completely commanded the approach to the mined bridge,and also effectually masked the position of his twelve-pounder,proceeded down the road alone for the purpose of destroying the bridge.Ten minutes later a deep boom, accompanied by a volcanic upheaval ofdust and debris, announced the successful accomplishment of the task, atthe same time that it startled the Spanish soldiery and aroused thecuriosity and suspicion of the Spanish general, who at once dispatched asmall reconnoitring party to investigate the nature of the explosion.Jack, who had waited to examine the result of his engineeringexperiment, and had seen with much satisfaction that, while the crown ofthe arch was completely destroyed, rendering the bridge absolutelyimpassable, it would be a simple matter to repair the damage later on,observed the approach of the party, and at once determined to await it,deeming it an excellent opportunity to establish a clear understandingwith the Spaniards and bring matters at once to an issue. Accordingly,he stood there, on his own side of the wrecked bridge, in clear view ofthe approaching reconnoitring party, and patiently awaited its arrival.

  Presently the officer in charge of the party, catching sight of him,galloped forward alone and, reining up on the opposite side of the gapin the bridge, indignantly demanded:

  "Hola, Senor! What is the meaning of this, and who is responsible forthe deed?"

  "I am responsible for it," answered Jack; "and it means that SenorMontijo is not disposed to tamely submit to the destruction of hisproperty. You may therefore return to General Echague and inform himthat we have placed the estate in a condition of defence; that we areprepared to resist attack to the last gasp; and that if he is ill-advised enough to persist in his attempt at destruction, he, and heonly, will be responsible for the bloodshed that must ensue."

  "It is well, Senor," answered the officer; "I will tell the General whatyou say. And you, in turn, may inform Senor Montijo that if he persistsin his mad resolve to resist us, his blood and that of every soul whotakes part with him will be on his own head: for General Echague is inno mood to deal leniently with rebels; when he turns his back upon you afew hours hence the estate will be a blackened, fire-scorched waste, andevery man, woman, and child upon it will have been put to the sword!"

  And, wheeling his horse, with a swaggering show of contemptuousindifference to possible danger he rode slowly away.

  Jack watched the party until it had returned to the camp, and theofficer in command had made his report; and then, seeing that theSpanish troops were to be allowed to get breakfast before being led tothe attack, he dispatched Calderon--who had undertaken to perform theduties of galloper--to Carlos with a message to the effect that noimmediate attack was to be expected. Then, having posted sentries andgiven his own contingent instructions to get their breakfast at once,where they were, he mounted his horse and galloped up to the house tosnatch the meal which he knew would by this time be ready for him. Itwas a hurried meal, of course, but it was none the less welcome on thataccount, and it imparted that feeling of refreshment and vigour which isso comforting to a man who is about to engage in a possibly long andarduous fight; while it also afforded him the opportunity to personallyacquaint Don Hermoso and Carlos--who also presently came in--with thedetails of what had passed between him and the Spanish officer.

  Then, having fortified himself with food, Jack returned to his post, tofind his negro forces busily discussing their own breakfast, which theyfinished nearly half an hour before there was any sign of movement inthe Spanish camp. At length, however, the blare of bugles and therattle of drums gave intimation that a movement of some sort wasimpending; and presently the troops were seen to be mustering underarms. They consisted, as Jack soon saw, mainly of infantry: but therewas a small body of cavalry with them, about fifty in number; and theyalso had two light field pieces, each drawn by six mules.

  While the infantry were forming up, and the mules were being put to theguns, the general and his staff suddenly rode out of camp and advancedalong the main road, with the evident intention of reconnoitring themenaced position and ascertaining the most promising point of attack.But Jack had no idea of allowing them to gain even so much advantage asthat; he therefore moved among his men, and selecting some twenty of thebest shots, rapidly transferred them to another patch of cover whichcommanded the junction of the private with the main road, and instructedthem to open fire upon the reconnoitring party the moment that it shouldcome into view, himself remaining with them to encourage and give themconfidence. He had scarcely got his little body of sharpshooters intoposition when the leading files of the reconnoitring party appeared insight at the junction of the two roads, evidently bent upon examiningthe wrecked bridge; and Jack, waiting only until the entire body cameinto view, gave the order to fire. The effect was disastrous to theSpaniards, for the negroes, concealed as they were, and confident oftheir own absolute safety, took aim with the utmost coolness anddeliberation, with the result that seven out of the dozen saddles wereemptied, while the general and another officer had their horses shotunder them. There was an immediate wild stampede of the survivors, thetwo dismounted men contriving with difficulty to catch and mount acouple of riderless horses; and ere they had got beyond range two moremen and three more horses were bowled over by the main body of Jack'snegroes, who had the adventurous party in view as soon as they were lostto sight by the band of sharpshooters nearer the bridge.

  Upon regaining his camp the Spanish general at once ordered forward histwo field guns, his instructions to the artillerymen apparently being toshell the little clump of cover in which Jack had concealed hissharpshooters. But the latter, despite his youth and inexperience, wasshrewd enough to foresee some such move as this, and accordingly he hadno sooner put the reconnoitring party to flight than he withdrew his menfrom their place of concealment and marched them back to rejoin theircomrades, taking care to keep them all together, for he had a verystrong suspicion that he would again need them for special service erelong.

  The guns were advanced at a gall
op, brought to action front, andunlimbered, all with very creditable smartness; and the next momentshell fire was opened by both weapons upon the little patch of coverjust vacated by Jack's marksmen. The aim was good, shell after shelldropping so close to where those marksmen had been concealed that withinthe first five minutes they must all have been destroyed had theyremained there, even although about two out of every three shells failedto explode. The Spanish general was soon convinced that his guns hadaccomplished their mission, for when they had fired some thirty shells agalloper was seen approaching the artillery officer, and the next momentthat individual gave the word to cease fire and limber up. At the word,the drivers put their mules into motion and advanced toward the guns;whereupon Jack, who had been patiently awaiting this movement, gave anorder to his sharpshooters, who immediately opened fire upon the teams,with the result that before the guns could be moved every animal wasdown. Then the artillerymen themselves attempted to drag the weaponsaway, upon which they also began to drop; and at length a squad ofcavalry was dispatched to move the weapons. But they were obliged togallop nearly half a mile across Jack's front, within range the wholetime; and, although they covered the ground at a good pace, so hot wasthe fire maintained upon them, and so deadly the aim, that not one ofthe horsemen was able to reach the guns: Jack had got the weapons underthe cover of his rifles, and he did not mean to let them go.

  But Singleton soon had something else than the two guns of the enemy tothink about; for while he had been concentrating his attention upon thetwo field pieces, the entire body of troops had begun to move, and wereadvancing, in two columns, with the evident intention of endeavouring toforce the passage of the stream somewhere in the neighbourhood of theruined bridge: apparently they were unaware of the existence of thestill weaker position which Carlos had undertaken to defend. Throughsome strange oversight or carelessness on the part of their commander,they were advancing in close order, and Jack felt that now was themoment when his twelve-pounder was likely to prove useful. He intendedto captain the gun himself, and had caused it to be loaded with shrapnelsome time before: and he therefore now carefully aimed the weapon at acertain spot over which the troops must pass, and the distance of whichhe knew almost to an inch. Then, waiting patiently until the leadingcolumn was within about three yards of it, he fired. The shell appearedto strike the ground and explode almost at the feet of the advancingtroops, and when the smoke of the explosion cleared away it was seenthat an enormous gap had been made in the advancing column, which hadbeen thrown into the utmost confusion, those men in the immediatevicinity of the gap, on either side of it, having halted in dismay,while the right and left wings had continued to advance; and in themidst of the gap could be seen a long swath of prostrate men, the mostof whom were lying horribly and unnaturally still. It was pitiable tosee those men, many of them scarcely out of their boyhood, led forth todie in support of grinding, unendurable tyranny and misgovernment: yetthat was not the moment in which to indulge a feeling of mistakenhumanitarian sentiment--mistaken, because Jack knew that unless thosesame men could be driven off they would be remorselessly used as theinstruments of ruthless destruction and indiscriminate slaughter; so,while the confusion among the ranks was still at its height, he orderedthe gun to be reloaded, and again plumped a shell right in the verymidst of them.

  This second shell appeared to have been even more terribly destructivein its effects than the first, for the two columns were, when it fell,bunched close together, and it seemed to have dropped where the men werethickest; and ere the now demoralised troops could recover from thepanic into which they had been thrown, their ranks were yet moredisastrously thinned, a rattling crash of Maxim fire from Carlos'position indicating the direction from which this new punishment hadcome. But by this time General Echague had begun to recover hispresence of mind. He saw that to attempt to advance farther in closeformation in the face of such a withering fire would be suicidal, and hegave the word for his men to take open order, which they instantly did:and a moment later a slight change in the formation of the attackingtroops showed that while the leading column was intended to be used inforcing the passage of the river at the point where the bridge had beendestroyed, the other column had been diverted to attack the positionwhich Carlos had undertaken to defend.

  The troops, having taken open order, were next ordered to lie down andthus minimise their exposure as far as possible; and in this posturethey advanced to the attack, creeping gradually forward and firingindependently at any spot where the flash of a rifle, or a puff ofsmoke, showed that an enemy lay concealed. There was one small party ofmen in particular that attracted Jack's attention, and a carefulinspection of them through his glasses showed that they were providedwith something which had the appearance of scaling ladders, which theywere laboriously dragging after them, and which Singleton very shrewdlysuspected were intended to span the gap in the broken bridge and thusafford a passage for the troops across the river. To these men, and tothe cavalry who were still persistently endeavouring to recover thepossession and use of the two field pieces, Jack commended the especialattention of his negroes, leaving the remainder of the Spanish troops tobe dealt with a little later on; for, the defenders being safelyensconced in cover, the rifle fire of the attacking party was absolutelyharmless to them, and the young Englishman felt that so long as he couldkeep the party with the scaling ladders at arm's length, and the fieldpieces from being used against him, he was practically master of thesituation. And these two objects he gained most successfully, the partywith the ladders very soon being wiped out, while all attempts on thepart of the main body to supply its place were effectually frustrated;while, as for the guns, by the time that the cavalry-men had lost rathermore than a quarter of their number they had evidently arrived at theconclusion that to move the pieces from the exposed position which theyoccupied was an impossible task, and they accordingly abandoned it,turning their attention next to the position which Carlos was defending.

  The unequal fight had been in progress for nearly two hours, duringwhich Singleton's party had experienced less than a dozen casualties,while the enemy, exposed in the open, had suffered very severely, whenanother body of men suddenly made their appearance in the rear of theSpanish forces, and, with howls and yells of vengeful delight, rushedforward to the attack. A small flag of Cuba Libre which was borne intheir midst proclaimed them to be a body of revolutionaries, and theSpanish troops were hastily called off from the attack on the estate andformed up in square to receive them. But the Spaniards might as wellhave attempted to stop the wind as to stem the onrush of those fierceand determined men, who were, moreover, in overwhelming numbers; theyhad time only to pour in a couple of hasty, ill-directed volleys, andthen the Cubans--armed, some with rifles, and others with swords, cane-knives, machetes, scythe blades, pikes, hatchets, ay, and even crowbarsand smiths' hammers--swept down upon and overwhelmed them. For thespace of perhaps three minutes there was a hideous melee, a confusedmass of men struggling, yelling, shrieking; a popping of pistol shots, awhirling and flashing of blades in the sun; and then out from the midstof the confusion there emerged a bare half-dozen of panic-strickenhorsemen, who set spurs to their frantic steeds and galloped for theirlives off that fatal field. Another Spanish force had been wiped out bythe insurgents!

  Half an hour later, when the dead had been stripped of their weapons andammunition, Antonio Maceo and a little body of his subordinate officers,using the scaling ladders left on the field by the Spaniards, crossedthe gap in the wrecked bridge, and made their way up to the house forthe purpose of thanking Don Hermoso for the letter of warning which hehad dispatched to them, and with a request for the loan of all thespades and other tools which he could spare to enable the insurgents tobury the dead: and by sunset that night a long, low mound of fresh-turned earth, showing red amid the vivid green of the grass-grown plain,was all that was left as evidence of the tragedy; while Maceo and hisfour thousand patriots were wearily wending their way back to theirmountain fast
ness, the richer by two six-pounder field guns, a thousandstand of arms, with a considerable quantity of ammunition, and theentire spoils of the Spanish camp.

  It was subsequently ascertained that General Echague and five of hisstaff had succeeded in making good their escape from that field ofslaughter; and as it was anticipated that the Spaniards, infuriated bytheir terrible reverse, would be more than likely to seek an earlyrevenge, Jack and Carlos were kept very busy during the ensuingfortnight in so far improving the defences of the estate as to render itpractically impregnable. The remains of the wrecked stone bridge wereremoved, and a timber drawbridge was built in its place; entrenchmentswere dug commanding the approach to it and to the one or two other spotswhere it was thought that the passage of the river might possibly beforced; a further supply of ammunition was sent for; and a small lookoutand semaphore station was constructed on the hillside, at a point whichcommanded a view of every possible approach to the estate. And thenensued a period of rather trying inactivity, during which Jack andCarlos were kept constantly on the tenterhooks of expectancy, vainlystriving to get some inkling of the intentions of the enemy.

  Then at length came the news that General Weyler, baffled in his effortsto force a general engagement with, the enemy, and galled by theconstant heavy losses which he was sustaining, through the ravages ofdisease and at the hands of the insurgents, had issued an order for theconcentration of the entire rural population in the fortified towns, inorder that they might thus be prevented from supplying the various bandsof armed revolutionaries with provisions and other necessaries. Theeffect of this cruel and tyrannical order was to drive practically everyman into the ranks of the rebels--since he could no longer follow hisvocation without exposing himself to severe punishment for disobedience;while the women and children, to the number of some sixty thousand, wereperforce obliged to obey the decree, and, forsaking their homes, betakethemselves to the towns. But no sooner had they done so than it becameapparent that no sufficient provision had been made for theirmaintenance; and, since it was impossible for them to earn a living forthemselves, the suffering and loss of life among these unfortunatesquickly assumed appalling proportions, to the horror and indignation ofthe American people, who had been watching, with steadily and rapidlygrowing disapproval, the peculiar methods of the Spaniards for thesuppression of the rebellion. It was the opinion of America, indeed--and not of America alone, it may be said--that there would have been norebellion in Cuba but for the gross corruption and inefficiency of thelocal government; and that the proper method of suppression was, notforce of arms, but the introduction of reforms into the system ofgovernment. The fact is, that the state of affairs in Cuba wasgenerating a strong and increasing feeling of hostility between theUnited States of America and Spain; for while, on the one hand, theoutspoken comments of the American press deeply wounded the sensitivepride of the Spanish nation, which could ill brook anything that even inthe remotest degree savoured of censure, or of interference with its ownprivate affairs, the determination of that nation to manage thoseaffairs in such manner as seemed to it most fit led to many ill-advisedacts, tending to further strengthen the sympathy of the freedom-lovingAmerican for the oppressed and persecuted Cuban--a sympathy which foundexpression in the generous supply of munitions of war to the insurgents.This feeling of mutual hostility was further strengthened about thistime--that is to say, in June of the year 1896--by what was spoken of atthe time as the _Competitor_ incident. The _Competitor_ was a vesselmanned by a crew consisting, with one solitary exception, of citizens ofthe United States; and in the month above-named she was surprised andcaptured on the north-west coast of the island by the Spanishauthorities, immediately after landing a cargo of arms and ammunitiondestined for Maceo and his little army of patriots. The crew of theship were forthwith tried by court martial and sentenced to be shot: butunder the treaties existing between the United States and Spain it wasspecially provided that, unless American citizens were actually in armsagainst Spain when captured, they could only be proceeded against beforethe ordinary tribunals; the United States, therefore, through GeneralLee, its Consul-General in Havana, promptly intervened on behalf of thecrew, declaring that their trial by court martial was illegal. Spain aspromptly retorted that she was perfectly justified in the action whichshe had taken, and manifested a very strong disposition to abide by thedecision of the court martial, and execute its sentence. But the UnitedStates remained so inflexibly firm, and made it so clear that it wouldtolerate no departure whatsoever from the terms of the treaty, thatSpain, after holding out as long as she dared, was at length compelledto yield and order a new trial by ordinary process; with the result thatthe ship's crew, after having been kept for a long time in prison, wereeventually released and expelled from the island. This incident greatlyembittered the relations between the two nations, Spain especiallyresenting the humiliation of defeat; and there seems very little doubtthat it was the primal cause which led up to the Spanish-American War.

  One day, as the little party at the casa Montijo were about to sit downto second breakfast, Antonio Maceo suddenly made his appearance.

  "Good-day, Senores!" he exclaimed, as he mounted the steps leading tothe front veranda. "Good-day, Senora! And how are you to-day?"

  "Quite well, thank you, Senor," answered the Senora. "And you? But Ineed scarcely ask; the mountain air evidently agrees with you. This isa quite unexpected pleasure, Senor Antonio."

  "You mean my visit to you, Senora? It is very good of you to say so.Not knowing what facilities you may have for obtaining news, I thought Iwould come down to let you know that I believe we have at length driventhe Spaniards completely out of the neighbourhood. Your friend GeneralEchague attacked us in force about a month ago, with the avoweddetermination, as I have since learned, of dislodging us from ourstronghold; and we had the most splendid fight that I have everparticipated in. We allowed him to gradually drive us back some sixmiles into the mountains, until we had drawn him into a very carefullyprepared ambuscade, and there we punished him so severely that I believehe will not again dare to trouble us, especially as I learn that thegeneral himself was severely wounded. But," he continued, taking DonHermoso by the arm and leading him to the end of the veranda, out ofearshot of the Senora, "that is not what I came down to tell you. Ilearned, only yesterday, that that fiend Weyler, maddened by hisinability to check the progress of the rebellion, and the failure of hisarms generally, has personally taken the field at the head of an army ofsixty thousand men, and is marching through Havana, on his way to Pinardel Rio, carrying fire and sword through the province, and leavingbehind him nothing but black and blood-stained ruin. Before he leftHavana he proclaimed that a free pardon would be granted to allinsurgents who should choose to surrender themselves to the Spanishauthorities, and a certain number of those among us who have becomeincapacitated through sickness have, with the consent of the leaders,accepted his offer: but their surrender, so far from weakening us, hasstrengthened our hands, for we no longer have them to nurse and lookafter. But he has also issued another order, to the effect that theSpanish troops, while marching through the country, will henceforthdestroy all buildings, crops, cattle, and other property which may becapable of sheltering or assisting the insurgents in any way whatsoever;and, furthermore, that all persons met with who have disobeyed the`concentration' order will be treated as rebels--which means that theywill be tried by drum-head court martial and shot. I don't know whetheror not you have yet heard this news, Senor Hermoso, but you have aidedus thus far in so magnificently generous a manner that I deemed it myduty to come down and make certain, and also to warn you of what you mayexpect if Weyler should happen to find you here. As for me, I have cometo the conclusion that I can do no good by remaining pent up among themountains, while it is equally certain that with four thousand men Icannot hope successfully to encounter Weyler and his sixty thousand. Ihave therefore determined to endeavour to slip through the _trocha_ anddemonstrate against Havana, in the hope that Weyle
r will thus be inducedto abandon his march and return to protect the city. So far as you areconcerned, my advice to you is that you leave this place at once, andeither accompany me or fly to some place of safety, whichever youplease. But in either case you cannot do better, I think, than turn allyour negroes over to me, with such arms as you can spare."

  "Come in and take some breakfast with us," said Don Hermoso. "This isserious news indeed, and what it is best to do, under the circumstances,is a matter that is not to be decided in a moment; it needs carefulconsideration, and therefore I will talk it over after breakfast withyou--if you can spare me an hour or two--my son, and the youngEnglishman, who, although only a lad, seems to have a man's head on hisshoulders. My present inclination is to remain where I am, and letWeyler do his worst. I believe that, with the dispositions which wehave made since Echague's attack upon us, we can hold the estate againstall comers."

  And when, after an hour's earnest conference a little later on in theday, and a tour of the estate in the company of Don Hermoso, Carlos, andJack, Antonio Maceo took his leave, in order to return to his men amongthe mountains, he expressed the opinion that, given an ample supply ofammunition, and a sufficient store of provisions, it was just possiblethat Don Hermoso might be able to hold even Weyler and his sixtythousand men at bay. Whereupon it was decided that the attempt shouldbe made.