230 



CUBA. 



ins? to please him by severe measures. When 18 

 citizens were reported to have been butchered in 

 the village of Guatao. Gen. Weyler promised to in- 

 vestigate, but no examinat ion took place. The rebel 

 forces in Havana province were strengthened by 

 detachments from Maceo's division, which crossed 

 the trocha south of Guanajay. A party of insur- 

 gents entered Managua, 15 miles from Havana, 

 where the volunteers surrendered and joined the 

 invaders with arms and ammunition. At times the 

 rebels raided the outskirts of Havana to get horses. 

 In order to prevent the insurgents from receiving 

 aid from the people of the country, Gen. Weyler or- 

 dered all inhabitants of the country districts to be 

 brought into the fortified towns, which no one 

 would be permitted to leave for any purpose with- 

 out a permit. By a later decree the property of all 

 persons whose absence from their homes could not 

 be satisfactorily accounted for was ordered to be 

 confiscated. 



Gen. Weyler's Strategy. The Spanish forces 

 posted along the line from Havana to Batabano 

 made an effort to inclose the joint forces of Gomez 

 and Maceo concentrated in Havana province east 

 of the Managua mountains after Maceo had 

 marched rapidly eastward through the center of the 

 province. Three columns of Spain's best troops, 

 with cavalry, infantry, and artillery, were extended 

 in the form of a triangle and closing in on the 

 two patriot leaders, but Gomez cut through one 

 side of the triangle and Maceo pushed back the 

 other. Gen. Linares, Gen. Aldecoa, and Col. Se- 

 gura killed a large number of the insurgents with 

 their artillery fire, compelling them to evacuate 

 their camp and disperse several times, but could 

 not come up to them. Maceo made his way cast- 

 ward, following the same route by which he had 

 come west. Gen. Prato attempted to intercept him 

 near Jovellanos and killed 42 in a fight at close 

 quarters. Maceo's force, estimated at 4,000, retired 

 into the Guamacaro mountains. Gomez marched 

 eastward through the southern part of Matanzas. 

 The revolutionary force of Masso was defeated on 

 Feb. 25 by the column of Gen. Linares. Maceo and 

 Gomez continued their march toward the province 

 of Santa Clara, where Gen. Pando and Gen. Arolas 

 disposed their forces in two strategic lines to pre- 

 vent the invasion of the central sugar district. The 

 troops from Havana followed the rebel leaders into 

 Matanzas, and other columns were sent ahead by 

 rail and by steamers to head them off. When they 

 disappeared in their stronghold in the everglades 

 of Cienega de Zapata the Spanish forces were 

 speedily massed there and disposed in a way to 

 hem them in effectually, but before this stratagem 

 was completed the rebels had slipped by all ob- 

 structions with only a few skirmishes, and were 

 countermarching westward through Matanzas, hav- 

 ing left their sick and wounded in the hospitals of 

 Cienega de Zapata, and provided themselves with 

 ammunition and strengthened their forces with 

 new troopers fresh from Puerto Principe and San- 

 tiago. Gomez stopped in the heart of Matanzas to 

 stop all grinding of cane, effectually refuting Wey- 

 ler's proposition to clear the western provinces of 

 insurgents for the grinding of the crop by the mid- 

 dle of March. While Weyler's forces were still 

 concentrating in Santa Clara, Maceo was again at 

 the gates of Havana with his original force of nearly 

 5.000 men almost doubled by re-enforcements from 

 the orient. On March 2 there was a skirmish in 

 the suburban town of Jesus del Monte. Trains were 

 fired on just beyond the city on the Matanzas road, 

 and attacks were made on the forts of Quemaclo, 

 Guines, and Potosi. Bridges and stations of the 

 Cardenas and Matanzas railroads were destroyed. 

 The rebels were as bold as ever in spite of "the 



constantly arriving Spanish re-enforcements. While 

 a considerable force engaged the fort in a fortified 

 place small parties searched the town for arms and 

 stores and burned the houses of Spaniards. The 

 telegraph wires were cut as fast as they could be 

 repaired, and railroad trains, consisting of armored 

 cars, were piloted by an exploring engine carrying 

 workmen who replaced missing rails and sawed 

 ties. After Maceo had left Pinar del Rio the guer- 

 rilla bands remaining there had operated more 

 ruthlessly than he had done, burning tobacco 

 houses in the Vuelta Abajo and several hamlets and 

 estates. Similar bands ravaged the sugar districts 

 in the absence of the regular forces, destroying 

 mills and. in one case, hanging a wealthy planter. 

 In the east of Cuba the Spanish guerrillas, who 

 committed murders and outrages before the com- 

 ing of Weyler. were guilty of horrible massacres. 

 The rebels early in the year began to use dynamite 

 extensively to destroy railroad bridges. The Vuelta 

 Arriba tobacco district, in Remedios. was devas- 

 tated in the autumn of 1895; the Partidos district, 

 in the province of Havana, was laid waste in the 

 winter by Maceo's men while skirmishing, and the 

 Semi Vuelta suffered greatly from the operations 

 of both armies, and later the Vuelta Abajo, in Pinar 

 del Rio. When the campaign in Pinar del Rio was 

 pushed more energetically by Gen. Weyler. the 

 province was laid waste, and finally the whole crop 

 was destroyed. Houses in the country were burned 

 by the rebels, lest they should serve as fortified 

 posts for the new civic guards. In Matanzas and 

 Havana provinces Gen. Gomez ordered the inhabit- 

 ants to take the roofs off their buildings, and de- 

 stroyed those wherever his order was disobeyed. 

 The Cubans destroyed towns and hamlets that the 

 Spaniards might occupy, and the royal forces de- 

 stroyed those that gave aid or succor to the Cubans. 

 In Havana province, Bejucal, Jaruco, Wajay, Me- 

 lena, Bainoa, La Catalina, San Nicolas, and Xueva 

 Paz were laid in ruins; in Pinar del Rio. Cabanas, 

 Cayajabos, Palacios. Vinales. San Juan Martinez, 

 Montezuelo, Los Arroyos, Cuano, Bahia Honda, 

 San Diego, Nunez. Quiobra. and Haclia : in Matan- 

 zas, Mncagua. San Jose, Los Ramos, Roque, and 

 Torriente ; in Santa Clara, Amaro, Salamanca, 

 Mata, Flora, Maltiempo, San Juan, and Ranchuelo. 

 Besides these more than 25 towns were half burned 

 by the insurgents for resisting attacks, or because 

 they were being used as depots for supplies for 

 Government troops. In some cases, like that of 

 Cabanas, the royal troops demolished the town to 

 prevent the insurgents from occupying it. On 

 March 27 Gen. Weyler issued an order declaring 

 that, " inasmuch as the rebels are eluding engage- 

 ments with the Government troops and are com- 

 mitting arson and other crimes, such bands will 

 hereafter be regarded as bandits, and treated in 

 accordance with the latest decrees relating to such 

 persons." 



A month after the arrival of Gen. Weyler the 

 Cuban field army was 15,000 men stronger than it 

 had been before. When the main part of the 

 Spanish land forces moved into Pinar del Rio after 

 Maceo and Gomez, and the Spanish, fleet was en- 

 gaged in watching the coast of that province, three 

 of the largest expeditions of the war succeeded in 

 landing men and munitions in the far east. The 

 Cuban forces were therefore no longer short of 

 ammunition, and when Weyler adopted more aggres- 

 sive tactics they also became more active and aggres- 

 sive and engagements were more frequent and san- 

 guinary. Maceo equipped an artillery corps with 

 11 field guns taken from the enemy and 5 brought 

 from the United States and Santo Domingo. 



Attempted Pacification. Premier Canovas was 

 determined to hold elections for the Cortes in Cuba 



