Page:McClure's Magazine volume 10.djvu/586

"DO YOU WEAR THE WEAPONS OF THE REPUBLIC FOR ORNAMENTS?"

of all military matters. . . . By January, 1896, the rebellion had extended through the entire Island, and Gomez was able to put in force his second plan—that of destruction. Proprietors of plantations were forbidden to grind cane, on pain of having their crops destroyed; many confided in the protection of Martinez Campos, and saw their plantations go up in flames. Others did not grind, and their canefields remained standing. In February, Weyler came in and ordered the planters to resume grinding throughout the Island. Then their canefields were universally destroyed.

The burning of cane means only the loss of the crop for one year; for fire simply destroys the leaves and chars the stalks, leaving the root unharmed. Sugar can be made from burnt cane, but it is of poor quality. The planters still attempted to grind—many of them grinding with burnt cane, according to Weyler's orders. Then the insurgents burned not only the cane, but the sugar-mills also, and millions of invested capital went up daily. This was carrying out Gomez's idea of destroying everything of value in the Island, and depriving Spain of any possible revenue. Gomez is fond of repeating the story of the semi-civilized Indians who once inhabited Cuba, and who threw their gold into the rivers at the approach of the Spaniards, knowing it to be the cause of their persecution. So the invasion accomplished not only the spread of the rebellion throughout the Island, but it succeeded in cutting off Spain from every possible revenue in that direction, and in injuring her credit abroad. . . .

At first I thought Gomez's staff officers a less courteous lot than the aides of Lacret. They were less inclined to lionize the foreigner, and were perhaps rather more attentive to their own affairs. But I noticed that these aides were alert and prompt in obedience to a degree I had not before witnessed in the Manigua. Their very appearance was businesslike, for they carried carbines in addition to the pistols and machetes of their grade. The soldierly discipline inspired by Gomez showed in his staff as it did in the men of his escolta, and of the local forces who had once been under his eye.

"I WILL HAVE THE SURGEON EXAMINE US AND SEE WHICH IS THE SICKER MAN, YOU OR I!"

Gomez never camped in houses. He preferred not to inconvenience householders, he said; and, besides, he knew that a house is always the first point of a sudden attack. There was not, therefore, the general staff mess that I had seen with Lacret. . . .

The insurgents never desert their wounded. It is part of their religion to stay with them. I have never seen or heard, on good evidence, of an exception to this rule. As Gomez says, "The wounded are sacred."

The impedimenta were signalled to halt, and from it stout negroes were detailed to carry the helpless. Hammocks were borrowed from those who had them to lend, and the wounded were borne in them, slung on poles on the shoulders of their comrades. Two men carried a pole for a hundred yards or so, and rested it on crotched sticks that they drove upright in the ground at each halt, while they caught their wind and mopped their sweaty brows. A third man shouldered those crotched sticks and changed places with the first pole-bearer who gave out. . . .

Deep in the woods [on one occasion when the insurgents had come to a halt], some distance from the road, a temporary camp was made for the wounded, and the dead were buried. Graves were dug with poles made