The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-12


 others sick, others dead, without the not even able to give water to the thirsty without either religious or so- cial help, each one dying wherever chance laid him.'
 Terrible Deaths.
 The communication goes on to state that the deaths among these reconcen- trados average forty to fifty daily and that on an average there were but ten days of life for each person. It says that these unhappy creatures received food only after having been eight days in the fosos, during which time they were obliged to subsist upon the bad food which the dying had refused. Some horrible instances of the distress witnessed are given. Among the many deaths we saw" says the com munication, there was seen one inn possible to forget. There is still alive the only witness, a young girl of eighteen, whom we found seemingly lifeless on the ground. On her right side was the body of young mother, cold and rigid, but with her young child still living clinging to her breast. On her left side was the corpse of a dead woman holding her son in a dead em- brace. A little further on dying wo- man having in her arms a daughter of fourteen, crazy with pain, who after twelve or fourteen days, died in spite of the care she received"
 Further along the communication save flat if aov y0llpo, o.ir1 par1a in who was nice looking she was infallibly condemned to the most abominable of traffics The communication says that 1,700 persons had entered the ditches since August and of those but 243 were then living. It places the number of deaths among the reconcentrados at v per cent.
 Conspiracy Against Americans.
 On December 5, General Lee sent to the state department communication referring to the cipher dispatch he had sent two days previously, in which he informed the department that he had learned from the United States consul at Matanzas, of an extensive and dan gerous conspiracy under the ex-gover- nor of the province directed against ftIu6llCdllS, dCllOll dSdlilSl liiCli lo bC contingent on the movement of the United States government in favor of the independence of Cuba
 General Lee stated that rumors had been more or less frequent during the riotous intention of some of the dis satisfied elements against American citizens there and in other parts of the island. Such demonstrations, he said, must come from Spanish non-combat- ants or from volunteer forces. He did not think there was any danger from the former, many of wl.6m seemed to favor annexation rather than auton- omy or the independence of the Cuban republic. T am inclined to think" :" says he, that if General Blanco can manage the volunteers as yesterday he said he could, the trouble from that source is diminishing. The origin of the mobs in this city in the past, has always been located in the ranks of the volunteers, who alone have organi-
 Zation and arms"
 The Presence of Warships.
 In consequence of the assurances that American life and property would
 be protected, General Lee said that he had declined to make application for the presence of one or more warships in Havana harbor and had advised Americans who had wives and children not to send them away, at least for the present. T still think" continued Gen. eral Lee, 'that two warships, at least, should be at Key West prepared to move at short notice and that more of them should be at Dry Tortugas and 1 that coaling station should be estab- | lished there. Such proceedings would seem to be in line with that prudence and foresight necessary to afford safety | to Americans residing on the island and to their properties"
 Spanish Public Deceived.
 l Under the same date, General Lee 1 sends another communication contain | ing the statements of Senor Canalejas, 1 the editor of the Madrid Fl Heraldo, | who had just returned from Pinar del | Rio province after the conflict between ! the Spanish forces under General Val l asco and the Cuban forces under Diaz, l in which Canalejas was quoted as say | ing that the Spanish forces had dis ! played their usual valor. but that the | province was not pacified that out of l 14000 Spanish troops only between | three and four thousand were able to | operate, the balance being sick at hos 1 pitals, or in garrisons and towns; that ] he believed autonomy premature and was inclined to the adoption of ener- l getic military action for the purpose of | pacifying the province; that the truth ! should be known in Spain, where public 1 opinion and the press had been de- l ceived regarding the annihilation of the | war and the so-called pacification of l the western provinces.
 1 Terrible Condition.
 | Under date of December il General | Lee sent a letter to the department
 regarding the measures for the relief l of the reconcentrados, much of which | is not made public. In the portion | given out General Lee says:
 ] ''I see no effect of the governmental l distribution to the reconcentrados.
 am informed that only ,500 in Span l ish silver has been dedicated to the 1 Habana provinces out of the S100,00C said to have been set aside for the | purpose of relieving them on the is- | land and that reports from all parts | of the province show that 50 per cent had already died and many of those l left to die, and most of these are wo- men and children. I am informed that