The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-13
ON THE SPANISH TROCHA
RICHARD HARDING DAVIS TRAVELS
TWENTY-FIVE MILES OF 1T.
Best Description Written Of the
Death Trap to WcyIer's own Men.
Richard Harding Davis. in New York

cONeFy the spanish lfoCnd, the one at
the eastern end of Cuba. 1t is the longer
of the two. and stretches from coast TO
coast at the narrowest part of that half OF
the island, from Juraco on the south 10
Moron on the north. Before / TO
Cuba this time | had read about the Span
ish trocha in our newspapers without just
knowing what trocha was. | imagined
il to be a rampant of earth and fallen
trees. topped with barbed wire-a Rubicon
that no one was allowed to pass but which
the insurgents apparently crossed at will
with the ease and frequency of little girls
leaping a flying skipping rope. In
reality it seems to he a much more impor-
tant piece of engineering than is generally
understood. and one which when COM
pleted, might prove absolute barrier to
the progress of large bodies of troops un-
less they were supplied with artillery 1t
different from what l imagined it
would be that | may possibly be allowed
TO suppose that other people in the United
States hold ideas equally vague concerning
it, and i describe il in detail.
/ saw twenty-five of its fifty miles. and
the engineers in charge told me l was the
first American or foreigner of any nation
atty who had been allowed 10 visit il and
take drawings or photographs of it, Why
they allowed me TO see il | do not know,
nor why they should have objected to do
ing so | cannot imagine. There is no great
secret about il.
Indeed what impressed me the most con-
corning IL was the fact that every strate-
gle point of all their operations-their chief
hope of success against the revolutionists
was furnished them by their despised and
hated enemies in the United States. Every
sheet of armor plate, every corrugated
zinc roof or every roll of barbed wire
every plank. beam. rafter and girder. even
the nails that hold the planks together:
the forts themselves. shipped i'm sections
and numbered i'm readiness for setting up:
the ties for the military railroad which
clings TO the trocha from one sea TO the
other-all of these have been supplied by
manufacturers in the United States.
This is interesting when one remembers
that the American in most of the Spanish
Illustrated papers Is represented as hog,
and generally with the United State flag
for trousers, and Spain as a noble and
valiant lion. Yet il seems that the lion is
willing to save few dollars freight by
buying his armament from his hoggish
neghbor. and that the American who
TO making many dollars as he can in
building the wall against which the Cubans
may be eventually driven and shot.
TROCHA MOST INACCESSIBLE.
If the insurgents have found as much diff
ficulty in crossing the trocha by land as
found in reaching it by water they are de-
serving of all sympathy as patient and
long-sufering individuals. A thick jungle
stretches for miles on each side of the
trocha, and the only means of reaching it
| from the outer world is through the sea-
| ports at each end. OF these Moron is all
| but blockaded, and Jucaro is guarded by
a chain of keys. which makes it necessary
| TO reship all the troops and their supplies
and all the material FOR the trocha TO light
| ers. which meet the vessel six miles out at
| sea.
| dirty Spanish steamer drifted with us
| for two nights and q day from Cienfuegos
| TO Jucaro and 800 Spanish soldiers. dusty.
| ragged and barefooted. owned her COM
pletely as though she had been floating
| barrack These soldiers are from the viii
! lagos and towns OF Spain. Some of them
are not more than seventeen years old. and
| they are not volunteers. They do not care
whether Spain owns an island eighty miles
| from the United States or loses it. but
| they go out to ii and die of fever there,
| and have their pay stolen. and are put TO
| building earth forts and stone walls instead
| OF fighting in the fields
They brought us up finally against dark
shadow of house. built on wooden posts
| and apparently floating in the water. This
was the town of Jucaro as seen at that
hour of the night. and we left it before
sunrise the next morning / did not know
/ until my return whether | had slept in a
| stationary ark or on the end Of a wharf.
| In Havana General Weyler had given me
pass to enter. fortified places which, eX-
cept for the authority the signature i'm
| piled meant nothing all the cities and
| towns in Cuba are fortified and any one
can visit them. 1t was not intended 10 IN
clude the trocha: but argued that If a tro-
| cha was not fortified place nothing else
| was. and i persuaded the commandant at
| Jucaro to take that view of ii and to honor
| Weyler,s order So at D o'clock the follow
| ing morning a boXcar with wood planks
| stretched across for seats carried me along
| the line of the trocha from Jucaro to Ciego.
| the chief military post of the Notifications.
nd naA five hot lnn CT
| in covering the twenty-five miles between
| them.
| The trocha is a cleared space 40 to 200
| yards wide which stretches through what
| is apparently an impossible jungle for fifty
| miles The trees. which have been cut down
| piled up on each side OF the cleared space
and laid in parallel rows. forming bar
| rier of trees. trunks. and roots; and
| branches wide Broadway and higher
| than a mans head. 1t would take man
some time 10 pick his way over these bar
rers. and horse could no more do il than
il could cross jam of floating logs In a
| river.
GOMEZ CROSSED IN DAYLIGHT
| Between the fallen trees lies the single
track of the military railroad. and on one
side of that is the line of forts. and "A few
feet beyond them maze of barbed wire
| fet beyond them a maze of barbed wire
| Beyond the barbed wire again is the other
barrier of fallen trees and the jungle. In
| its unfinished state this is not an insur-
| mountable barricadc. Gomez crossed il
| last November by daylight with GOO mer
and with the loss OF but twenty-scver
| killed and as many wounded. To-day II
would be more difficult, and in a few
months without the aid OF artillery, would
be impossible except 1T the sacrifice OF 3
great loss of life.
The forts are of three kinds. They ar,
best described as the forts, the block
houses and the little forts. big fort con
sists of two stories with cellar below
and a watch tower above. III Is made ol
stone and il is painted a glaring white
One of these is placed at intervals OF every
half mile along the trocha, and on cleal
dav the sentry i'm the watch tower of eact
| can see three forts on either side.
Midway between the big forts. at dis
lance OF a quarter of a mile from each
is a blockhouse of two stories. with th'
upper story of wood, overhanglnS the low
or foundation of mud. These are placed al
right angles to the railroad, instead %
facing it; so do the forts.
Between each blockhouse and each for
are three little forts OF mud ana plankS
surrounded 10y 4 ditch. They look some
thing like a farmers lcehouse, as we SET
them at home, and they are about as no
inside as the other Is cold. They hold hv'
| men, and are I'm hailinE distance OF on'
another Back of them are three rows OF
stout wooden stakes. with barDed wire
| stretching from one row to the otneF, inter
lacing and crossing ana running III anu GU
above and below like an intricate cat $
cradle of wire.
| one can Judge how closely knit IL is b,
the fact that TO every twelve yards OF posG
there are $50 yards OF barDed-wlre fence
The forts are most completely e9uippe'
would find IL quite easy TO keep twelve mel
| securely ironrisoned in one OF them for al