The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-25 00:00:00

&item Ratver, sad run iniardiatcly for the snit of Cubs,
whin was den at abort l 0 p.m. The nest marniag, ow-
lag w the neiniss el the rapes hos markets-being
theird sear I, we had tremelves ia piela sight of the
lAse• Oak, and ebia twin mess &Oat e the vessel
ea busied at the nerthweed and westward,
sat— sillimarlYsi#l of Ind. About three p.m. of that
g]one took IN again and mate out of a Sir-
sr/mesa le eat se pilots, edam them to under-
lined that they wadi bit ebet if they shad any &o-
pagan te msW _fer daweive. At sae p.m. we again
sled la hr the kill, and aeon after dank sent a beat in
at neesaeltar, whisk woe hailed by a may ea the walls
ago het, slated sear Bahia Heads, the 00 oral being
Inn *ea • mile hem It As sena as the beet seated;
pgbte wen ealthrhell anadda prim linoleum pat ea the
ah~ ran
o'erock,:tetseim tutwestlerT theatilega ids pita nilell4o
peer et watt, tbs Wp saddest, sank, owl lefts the
nines add be eleppod, bad am more than bee hag&
spa • weal NA Mao exambsing her &nation, it was
*ma that all wee lying in about eight diet of water, '
while bee draft ems over nine feet; and that it was unea-
ten that the MN elionld be immediately landed, which
was data; oral &sat two o'clock on the morning of the
llth of Awn( the hat of us disembarked upon the shore
of
what we bed been taught to consider would loan be the
free Island of Cuba. The first boats which landed were
fired upon by • party of twenty men, who fled on their
fire being returned from the boat which contained Capt.
Goal (a Cubea demanding an American company.)
Lienteniust Latin/hem, and about thirty privates of his
company. One of oouti's men was wounded in the arm,
and returned in the ship, and the cap of the lieutenant was
cut into halves on his head.
At daylight Lopes sent a promo:winner/de to Los Poses,
a email village ten miles distant, in which he informed the
inhabitant. that ho was about t,l Mardi to that place, end
would give so quarters to any whom he found there who
did not join him. There being no means of transporting
baggage at Cabanas, where we landed, Lope: ordered
Colonel Crittenden to remain there and protect our stores,
consisting of 100,000 musket cartridge., 3,000 muskets,
and 709 pounds of power, in kegs, together with the per-
sonal baggage of all the officers, saying thathe would much
on to Los POW, with the regiment of infantry, commended
by Colonel Downman, and send from thence transportation,
and that he would remain there until joined by Crittenden.
Accordingly, Lopez marched at 8 o'clock, with 323 men,
leaving Crittenden at Cabanos, with 130 men. At 11 o'clock
that night, Crittenden received two carts, and seeded ina-
diediately after, to join Lopes at Lee Pews.
The carts being heavily loaded, and the roods bad, our
progress was of necessity slow, not advancing more than
a mile an hour. About two hours after daylight, on the
morning of the 13th, we reached a house containing a
store and grog shop, about for miles from Its Poem.
The advance guard and main body only had reached the'
house (the rear guard, with the carts, being still some
quarter of a mile behind), and were engaged in eating
breakfast, their arms being laid aside, when they were sur-
prised by the report of musketry and the whistling of bul-
lets, which proceeded from the advanced guard of a body
of the enemy, five hundred wrong. We immediately seised
our guns, and killed nine of the enemy, and made one
prisoner, none of our party having b.en injured. Not
geeing any more of the enemy, the colonel concluded
it was but a foraging party that had attacked us, and
our rear guard having come up with the carts, ordered
ns to resume our breakfasts, which we did. About ten
minutes after, we were again attacked by the whole force
of the enemy, they having the advantage of position, bring
posted on the brow of a hill overlooking our position' with
a belt of chapparal some three hundred yards wide inter-
vening, ever which we could not fire. Crittenden Mime
(Lately gave the order to charge, leading himself, and
forced the enemy to retreat to a large body of ehapparal,
Dome seventy-five or eighty yards in the rear of their find
position, from which they opened • heavy fire upon our
Sores as soon as it appeared in sight on the brow of the
hill. Finding he could not maintain that position, Critten-
den gave an order to retreat to the house, which was done,
while the enemy resumed his position on te bill, and again
opened his fire; upon which Crittenden
.ordered a second
charge, at the same time saying that he wished a small party
to attain a position at the right flank of the enemy, to charge
from that side at the same moment he charged from the
front. Second Lieutenant, W. 11. Crafts (also of Company
R), and myself volunteered, and succeeded in attaining the
position with twenty men. After remaining in it fur about
half-an-hour. and hearing nothing of Crittenden, we re-
turned to the house, where we found Capt. Kelly, of Com-
pany A, wi'h ten men, guarding their carts, but could hear
or sic nothing of Crittenden. the enemy soon after ad-
vancing towards the house, we were compelled to retreat,
leaving our baggage and stores; and that night, or rather
the nest morning, we succeeded in forming ajunction with
Loper at Los Puma, half-an-hour before his march from
that place. At the same hour that Crittenden was attacked
at the hacienda, a body of the enemy, eight hundred strong,
under General Enna, attacked Lopez at Los l'osas. After a
hard light of over two hours, the enemy retreated, leaving
the American' masters of the field, and over two hundred of
their number (among whom were several of their highest
officers) dead and wounded—the American low being in
killed, wounded, and missing, only about thirty men,among
whom Culonel Downman and Lieutenant Loins:in were
killed, and General l'ragay and Captains Brigham and
Gouti were mortally wounded. After the action, the
Spanish wounded were brought in and as well taken care
of 011 circumstances would admit. Lopes rode entirely Un-
armed over the field, through the hottest of the fir,', occa-
sionally applying a red raw bide with a great deal of vi•
gout to the shoulders of such men as be thought could be
hurried into tiring a little faster. 011 the morning of the
the 14th, at two o'clock, Lopes marched from Los Posas
into the mountains, leaving there 17 wounded Spaniards
and 13 of our side, all of whom were bayonetted by the
Spaniards, and their bodies piled in a heap, crossways, at
the foot of a hill
Two days after (on the 16th) Lopes was again attacked
by three hundred lancer', and six hundred infantry,
while encamped at a hacienda which formerly belonged
to himself, but was confiscated sense three years since.
Here the action lasted from 11 to 2 o'clock, on one of the
hottest days 1 ever experienced. The enemy were again
compelled to retreat, with a loss of three hundred and
twenty men, and at the same moment that the retreat of
the Spaniards in one direction was reported to Lopes, be
issued an order to his own force to retreat in the oppo-
site, and actually,. that day, made a forced march of
eighteen miles in five hours, over a mountain road. On
the 19th, being still on the mountains, wo were overtaken
by a severs rain storm, which destroyed the greater portion
of our ammunition, and rendered our gene entirely useless.
We encamped, on the evening of that day, at a rancho at
the him of the mountains, about two leagues from Ilahia
liouda. We remained undisturbed that night; and were
attacked just at breakfast time on the morning of the 20th,
being taken by surprise, the sentry on the outpost having
left his post to wash himself in a creek, where he was
killed. Owing to the unserviceable condition of their
arms, the force under Lopes was completely routed,
flying to the mountains in all directions—Lopes him-
self barely escaping on horseback, with the loss of his
saddle, pistols, and spyglass—of every thing, in fact, but
what he wore. That night he encamped on the top of one
of the highest mountains on the Island of Cuba, mimed to
all the violence of • terrific norther, without shelter, fire,
or foot).
It is impossible for me to describe the sufferings of that
tight. Heaves forbid that I ever per seek another. The
rain fell in teseents, while ever mil saga a terrific crash
would senseam that sons man tree bed fallen either
before the *RN ilf the fir the still mightier lightning.
That aloe eiterliail sa lifetime. Os the evening
lifetime.
of the lilt, baying bees beam Uttar sating,
we killed a bias, whisk wee an MS bandied
and twenty-Ave men, who were all that awe ransied with
Loper. IVe wandered thewagh mountains, tantalite to extri-
tate ourselves, subareas en such leaves sad mots as we
raid And, usdl ined-desof Bertey, the Mb, whoa wen*
eon& in emsbass nal nabs ftim &his Mail SI Ilia
Orielebelokag Urelt we winmenhallassely sight, vibes
two ligerbh haws were diessessed wherdss. but fled on
teeing es. A belt wee i an era.
lanntioll male el the state offaimiltai:Uailitirshowed a
total of 123 mss, ild muskets, about 00 of 'WA were ser-
viceable, and about 40 dry eartstegsa. then this Meta of
stairs it was deemed advfiabi N retreat, which was or-
dered, and a pan& seams& by the enemy, wire lay in
ambush some fur baba yeah la lanais, with a bra
if per mss. Oa As appose el the the white
hiss eitueules amen sad be. swell aid Me-
Masi the mewitaine, tbessiteg
sad reabis whisk neat encumber thsmillrelhele iligtr—s
ism GeV misiMbsgyrilli the ran*. A bast somber
'wen sverlandediately bile& 1 mew was one
W sleets sleight who bed precise* detembed ea ker-
b' Lapis, sad attempting to elope hem the blind.
We -__lead in the sestani• will the macs of Tues-
.% the 26th, when, baths bed but me anti la six days,
OM feeling that we odd bore Is sr longer, we
&armload to p late the pi surkisthis Ibis it would
be better is he killedoutright thin to die a li
death from stervation, which we certainly wield doniL"ilig
mountain.
W e esairlagly avian& to a beam wham we wile
treated with • ggrereat deal endoderm, sad essived s mist
earliest bnmablir. Am enemsamea wee me& * procure
• guide is Ow milk sham MO geselibmic lc, and we
were about to leave sad enema sending Tam sight, whea
la the Whaling of in eye we wen amended by 200
teau& eseaed eartrymee, who immediately bead us serunly al
nittiesseiderag the errata
kwhal
we
reached Pea ma-
der. not Cwe issihed Rea Oshlshi L Vwh
we wow min ilee latendsa that
we were to be immidiately shit, ear ally smilleibia being
that we were mes with fun stestatiM.
On our arrival dare, we wise lobes ed thari:ata-
Coe had been Masi Ma hems blame ma meas.
the lives of all Jilikeeleres vibe way stale wr
gave thearehes up within four days, except the traitor
Lopez, stem which, en order, dated, I think, the 21th
of Aped. MN (by which all tiessipers found on the island
wen-smsg to be pug In dISISI) WM to endue in full
foam Oa the 28th, them
_Wag them 4/ litmus, we left
San Crionsbel for lianas& ; sad OS YAW nett reached
Guayana, tba termini of • rained hem Bavannah.
Then an seder wen waived from the Capt-Oeneral to pro-
ceed to Nand, sea embark, he being Mad that the pri-
soners Wahl be am to pions by. the rabble of Havannsh.
We rewind ilsrial ea tie • of the 30th, and were
embeeked via the newarr Almenderea, to proceed to Ha- i
tam& where en engem arrived, bringing information of
the capture of Lopez, and the steamer was delayed to
await his arrival, which took place at two o'clock
p.m. on Sudsy, the 31st, when we immediately left
for flavaanah. Lopes was entirely at liberty, and smoked
his cigarette with apparently u much unconcern as he
ever did in his life. Outside the harbour of Hanel, Lopes
was transferred to the steam frigate Pizarro, which con-