The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1896-05-21
CUBAN MMISSARY
The Patriots Find Rations Under
The Greenwood Tree.
After Camp is Pitched The Men
Forage in The Forest.

One OF the most disappointed men
in town is captain Bueneo of the Cuban
army. The captain, who is member
of the largest banking house in San
Diego, Cuba, came to New York last
July on O special mission. He soon
finished his business, and has been
trying ever since to get back to fight
with his company. Twice he has at
tempted to get away, once, it is said,
on the Hawkins and again on the Ber-
muda.
81 was all through with my busi-
ness on July 90" said the captain,
land here am still. Every time I've
tried to get away something has hap
pened. If the people in charge OF the
Bermuda had labeled their boxes the
government would not have stopped
the steamer and 1 should be back with
my friends by this time, with chance
to help them. Here can do nothing.
! am useless.
"Look at colonel Perez there. He
and 1 began together. We were old
schoolmates, you know. He stayed
and fought and now he is colonel,
If I could have got back, I'd be a
colonel too, or dead. Oh, well, the
rainy season is coming on and lafter
that the fever. That will makel the
Spaniards sick. In the last war hir-
ty-eisht percent of them died of ever
to say nothing Of those we nY out
of the way with our machetes afi<r csii>kE-
lets.
"Of course they cannot ride at all.
Perez has told you about that, but we
can outmarch them, too. One night,
about year ago, we broke camp and
started to meet Maceo and Marti.
We knew that they were to land about
forty leagues away. By noon the next
day We had marched eighteen leagues
but we were not too tired to attack a
Spanish column that came down on
our flank, little to the rear. We
had a lively fight until five o'clock
when Maceo and Marti came up. Then
together we drove. the enemy out of
sight.
"We ought to have been pretty
tired by that time. Don't you think
SO Well, we were not very fresh,
but orders were given to return by
the route we came and, hunting up
something to eat from what the Span
iards had abandoned in their flight,
we marched back the whole eighteen
leagues, reaching our starting place
the next afternoon. You won't find
any Spaniards to do that. We couldn't
if we weren't used to the food and to
the climate and hadn't lived out of
doors all our lives.
"Another thing in our favor, espe-
cially in the billy country, where the
woods are dense, is that we know
what plants and roots are good for
food and what poisonous. Almost
anywhere in Cuba there is enough
stuff growing wild to keep any man
alive, if he knows how to get it. We
do; SO we can go about without a
commissary department.. When we
halt for breakfast or supper. there is
bugle call as signal to prepare to
hunt-get our sacks ready, etc. Then
second call, meaning disperse to the
woods. In half hour, perhaps, you
will see all the men back in camp, each
with some fruit or vegetable that he
has plucked or dug out of the ground.
We'eat those things and they agree
with us. If the Spanish eat them
much they have pain in the stom-
ach.
"All we need to drive the Span
iards out is supplies. We've more
men than We can arm. SO it is no
use for anyone to come to us looking
for job, unless he knows something
about artillery. Then we might use
him, but do not know certainly. -
New York Press.