Evening star., 1897-06-12

CUBAN PROVINCES AND CITIES.
men above 10000. with possibly 2s.OOO of
these under arms. Comes, however, in
case beIlfgerency b recognised and arms
and money assured. could probably bring
under his banner 5000 to 5000 men. It
would be q final rally Of insursent recruits,
and would exhaust their resources
The Two Tfoclras,
The trocha is the favorite military idea
OF Spanish generals. During the ten years
war they maintained what they call..l a
''trocha miiftar'' or military Gordon In the
present war the ditch and the barbed-wire
fence have come to be the main clements
IN the trocha. Two of these arc now MAIN
tained. One Is in the western part Of the
island. almost the boundary line between
the provinces Of Pinar del Rio and Havana
This Is the narrowest point of the island,
end Is the trocha which Maceo crossed last
winter. 1t is known hs the Weyler trocha,
and was constructed by Gen. Arolas, who
came out from Spain with Weyler :
The eastern trocha runs from .Jucaro to
Moron, and was known as Campos' trocha
It was naade the base Of operations by Gen.
Martinez Gampos. It IS the railroad trocha,
and has been strengthened under the d.
rection Of Gen. Arolas. Gen. Weyler Is now
making 1t the base Of his operations in
spreading his troops through Puerto Prin-
ctpe and Santiago In the attempt to pacify
those provtnces. The Insurgents maintain
considerable force west of this trocha,
and Gen. Gomez has HIS headquarters in
the provfnea of Santa Clara. However. he
shifts his headQuartxL from ono mountain
range to another at WILL While Mr. CAL
houn was in Cuba, Gomez was at u little
place called O1o de Aqua, not far from
Piaeetas. The seat Of the Cuban civil gov
eminent Is sometimes 1t Nuevitas, oa the
north coast. and sometimes at Cuhttas.
Two Armies Of Insurnents.
Weylers plan Of campaign Il 70. segre-
gate and dfsintcgrat4 the insurgents. The
two trochas are maintained to prevent
them from crossing from one end Of the is-
land to the other at will. and are fairly ef-
fectfvc for this purpose. It Is doubtful II
any considerable force Of Insurgents could
pass for instance, from Santa Clara to
Pinar del Rio. Small bands. hoHexer, do
roam from one province to another. and q
perfect system Of ccaTter communication is
kept up. The insurgents In the different
provinces are praeticahy separate armies,
but they all obey G6tiexts orders, and no Inn
portant military operations are undertaken
without his directiosnnr From the talk Of
Spanish officers learned that Gonaez COM
nands their respect as a military leader.
though they do not attribute to him the
soldferiy qualities 1iqfah were conceded to
Maceo.; Gofnez's lieutenant general Of the
east IS Calixto Garcia. FIN the west no one
has taken Maceo's biaGe, nor IL likely to.
Garcia was a rebel leader In the ten years
war. He is looked dp6h by the insurgents
a. their coming general; and If anything
happened to Gomez NJ would succeed to
the command of the army. This spring his
operations against the Spanish troops have
been brilliant, and Himost- uniformly, /, srcr
eessful. Charles Gordon. Georgian, is one
Of Gomez's trusted lieufenants. -;
In the Different Provinces.
The Insurgents have their largest force
IN Santiago. The insurrectton began, 1here.
IN fact. 1t ia said that the province was
not pacified at any time after the close OF
the ten years war. I was told they had
8.0O0 men under arms In this province, in
cladfnG two Indian tribes. The negroes
form a larger percentage Of the insurgents
IN Santiago than In the other provinces.
In Puerto Principe and Santa Clara to-
gether their forces are reported Rt 10000
to 12,0e9. M1tan8aS is said to be the most
quiet OF all the provinces, with probably
not more TIM 1850 insurgents in the field.
They are active, however, especially In
firing into and blowing up trains with dyn-
amite. In Havana province was inform
ed the insurgent rolls showed 400 men
enlisted. OF whom between 200 and 1.JO0
were awaiting arms. The week We came
away small expedition was landed west
nj hnto H.. -.
the Havana insurgents are presumably
under arms. In Pinar del Rio the force Is
probably 5000. 1t Is divided into small
bands, and the fighting. while Of the guer-
rfiia kind. has been very fierce during the
last few weeks. especially along the coast.
Filibusterinx Expeditions.
The insurgents land their ihbustefin8
expeditions at points near Matanzas, west
Of the trocha line near Mariel. near Neu-
along the north coast. On the south coast
Of Santiago they have several landing
places, as also not so distant from Glen
fuesos and Trinidad. In the west they
choose the swampy country. Their difh-
Guilty Is not 80 much In landing an expedi-
tion as In getting the arms and munitions
to the men in the interior. Hpain's coast
patrol does not seem to be an elective
one. The minister Of marine In his budget
submitted to the cortes asked Tor fifty
more SHIPS for Cubs. This was possibly
with View to the possible recognition Of
bclligerency by the United States. All Of
those having insuRGent synpaAhies With
whom E talked declared that IL beiligerency
were recognized Spain could not send
enough vessels to Cuban waters to keep
them from landing the arms they needed.
All they. wanted was the privileges OF 1T
ting out freely In the ports OF the United
States under be1ligerency.
Weyler's campaign has for ats end the
extirpation Of the race Of insurgents, and
the starving Of the uacificos is merely an
incident to that plan Of campaign which
need not be dweat on here. Weyier IL
striving to drive the Insurgents farther and
farther into the m9tnsains and deeper into
early summer the Sroops under his d!rec-
ton .S,a We Wsrs very askye They unauestion. on.
insurgents and scattered them. but 1t is
the kind Of warfafes ID, which results can
not be weighed by 4 fsw skirmishes.
Prefecturase an& yanguaFils.
The insurgents in their stronsHeids have