CABANA. 
The Fortification of Cabana —or, to give it the full title, Castillo 
de San Carlos de la Cabana—occupies an elevated site on the hill, which 
rises ioo feet almost abruptly from the water’s edge across the harbor 
from Havana. The route is by the harbor boats from Caballeria 
or Machina wharf or the Punta landing. The fare is io cents each way. 
The steep ascent from the shore and the long walk through the fortifi¬ 
cation are likely to be fatiguing for a woman. 
The harbor frontage is practically a continuous wall extending along 
the crest of the hill. The landward side has three pronounced bastions, 
and is protected by ditches 40 feet deep. The principal entrance is on 
this front. A drawbridge, which may be raised by the heavy chains, 
leads across the ditch to the sallyport. The legend above the entrance 
sets forth that the work was begun during the reign of Carlos III., in 
the year 1763, and was completed in 1774. The escutcheon displays the 
castles and dragons of the Arms of Spain, with crown, and necklace of 
the Golden Fleece. From the entablature grin two grotesques, hideous 
and repulsive, fit genii of the place. 
Entering through the vaulted hall, we come shortly to the Laurel 
Ditch—Los Fosos de los Laureles—so named from the laurel trees 
which grow here. This was the place of execution of insurgents and 
political prisoners during the Cuban revolution. In those days, persons 
who took part in the revolution, or who were merely suspected, whether 
rightly or wrongly, of sympathy with the cause, were arbitrarily 
arrested by order of the Captain-General, and sent to Morro or Cabana, 
where they were shut up incomunicado—that is, without communica¬ 
tion with friends or counsel—and by like arbitrary decree they were held 
in the dungeons or sent to Africa or sentenced to death here. Their 
fate, in any event, might be unknown to their families and friends. 
Scores were killed in the Laurel Ditch. The victim, kneeling, with face 
to the wall, was shot by a file of Spanish soldiers, who came out from 
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