The New York herald., 1873-11-25
How Many OF the virginius' Captives
Have Been Murdered - Conflicting
and Startling staten ents.

Have Been Murdered - Conflicting
and Startling Statements.
1t will be remembered that Consul General
Hall, in his official dispatches from Havana,
dated November 13, contradicted the report
that more of the men of the Virginius than
the first fifty-three had been executed at San
tiago dc Cuba-that is, Ryan, Varona, Del Sol
and Cespedes on the 4th, thirty-seven others
on the 7th and twelve more on the 9Th. Now
we have statement that can hardly be ques-
toned, confirming the report that fifty-seven
Others had been slaughtered on the 10th, three
days before the dispatches from Consul Cen
eral Hall were dated We have before
US copy Of E Eco de Cuba, pub
lished in Havana and dated the 10Th
of November, in which the editor
says:-"At the time we go to press with this
number we have received newspapers from
Santiago de Cuba. According to these there
were shot on the 10th inst. ffty-seven (50
more Of the pirates captured on the vir-
ginius. The trial proceeds with activity, and
we learn from persons who are well informed
of the proceedings Of the Court that only
eighteen (18) will escape the extreme penalty
some Of these, for example, as machinists,
because they did not know where they were
going others, because they were minors or
were embarked by force. 1t is believed that
but four or FIVE will obtain full liberty"
Admitting that El Eco de Cuba went to press
on the evening of the 14th the date of the
issue being the 18th, we are led to in
| quire how it was that Consul General
Hall could be ignorant on the
18th of what occurred at Santiago
| de Cuba on the 10th? True, it is
possible that he could not get this news in
three days. Yet El Eco de Cuba had time to
copy on the fourth day what the Santiago
papers had found time to print after the exc
cution of the ffty-seven victims We fear
there is little doubt of the fact, horrible as it
is, for the Santiago papers mention the pro
ceedings ciroumstantially, and must have
known the truth of what they published.
Besides, the censorship over the press is so
strict in Cuba that no paper, we presume,
could publish, or would venture to publish,
what was well known and of such grave
nature. The number captured on the Vir-
ginius was one hundred and sixty-three. 1t
has been admitted that fifty three were slaugh-
tered on the 4th, 7th and 9Th of November
The ffty-seven victims on the 10th would
make the whole number of executions to that
date one hundred and ten. The press de-
spatch from Havana, dated the evening Of the
14th, quoted the Diario of Cienfuegos as saying
that fifty of the virginius' captives had
been shot on the 10th. The subsequent de-
spatch from Havana on the 18th, which says
that the report from Cienfuegos had not been
confirmed by latest advices from Santiago,
goes for little, we think, now that the Santiago
papers have made circumstantial statement
and the Eco de Cuba, of Havana, has copied
it The Havana press despatch Of the 18th
confirms the other statement, copied by the
Eco de Cuba, that only eighteen would escape
the extreme penalty; for it says, four were
condemned to the chain gang for life, three to
eight years Imprisonment, eight to four years
imprisonment and three were set at liberty
This is the precise number spoken of by the
Santiago papers. Who, then, can doubt the
accuracy of the account of the slaughter Of the
ffty-seven from such o reliable source
But there were still left, besides the one
hundred and ten executed and the
eighteen which have escaped the extreme
penalty, thirty-fve of the captives. What
has been their fate? The Santiago papers
say only eighteen would escape the extreme
penalty, and eighteen was just the number,
as we see that has been sentenced to the
chain gang and Imprisonment. May we not
fear that by this time the thirty-fve have suf-
fered death as well as the one hundred and ten
Do we want any further evidence of the utter
disregard of and contempt for the United
States government on the part of the brutal
Spanish authorities in Cuba9 And could not
some of these unfortunate creatures have been
saved from death if our own government or
its agents had acted with vigor and promptly
and had not trusted to the lying Spaniards ?
The more the facts of this horrible crime
against humanity and the law Of nations are
revealed the more startling and heartrending
they appear.
The Lie Diplomatic.