Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-05-20
WITH THE INSURGENTS.
The Views of a Cuban Officer on H
COuntrymen.

Ihe views OF SuDnn Omcer on his
COuntrymen.
From the Independent.
The Cuban soldiers, poorly armed and
poorly fed and weak in numbers, have be-
come heroes in the eyes of the kind north
True we have heroes among us, and we
all try to fight bravely for our country. We
willingly give up lands. professions and
quiet to join the torn ranks of the little
army, and we win many wonderful VIC
tories. These victories due to a great
extent. to the fine qualities of our own men
to their dash and skill; but partly to the
iEexperience of the troops sent against
by the Spanish government. Boys of seven
teen and under are forced to take up arms
against men for whom they have no real
feeling of enmity. They are rushed about
through a country they do not know, they
are treated like dogs by most of their
officers, and harassed by us from daylight
till dark Few of their old troops are left
TO fight us. They were men of mettle and
knowledge of warfare, and often proved
too much for us, man for man. But the
new recruits are fighting unwillingly in a
cause they do not love. and if we have any
pity to spare from our own people it is for
them.
The Cuban in his early boyhood is train
ed in the use of the machete. In time of
peace he uses 1t to cut cane and frewood
and as a tool in carpentry work but when
he rides to war it becomes more deadly
than the American army saber or the old
time napier. Every countryman, white or
black, owns machete. so in this respect
our men are easily armed. Many of our
caValrymen are without carbincs but as
the wild charge is the most effective meth
cd of breaking the enemy in our guerrilla
fighting, the man with nothing but his
machete is not entirely useless. When the
Spanish commanders hear that we are
somewhere in the vicinity and march into
n h6tpn !,
into small squads of ten or twelve and our
infantry lie in ambush. When the Span
iards are near enough to make sure targets
we open fire on them from the brush.
Sometimes they answer this voley and
charge at the smoke, and sometimes they
turn back and make a dash for safety. In
either case our little bands of horsemen
break in upon them from every side, fire
and cut and retreat. The Spanish officers
may try to form their men into SQUARES
but very often their attempts are unsuc-
cessful; so we cut them down as they
run. This is our way of coping with the
superior numbers of Spanish regulars sent
out to beat us back into servitude Some
times the victory is ours, often it is theirs:
for once in the open their numbers tell
We would not be able to carry our system
OF ambush and deadly attack into operation
but for our relays of scouts who keep the
main body of our army notified of every
movement of the enemy
Most of the colored soldiers fighting for
tHe tupdI cause are IN the infantry, being
too poor to own mounts of their own and
in our army every man supplies his own
horse or else goes on foot. We have been
under arms for over three years. and dur
ing all that time have known no such thing
as pay day.
Americans have too great fear of CATCH
ing yellow fever in Cuba. The truth of
the matter is that our pastoral districts
and our hills are as healthy as any coun-
try in the world, and that the disease RACES
only in the vicinity of Havana and there it
Spaniards in their sanitary arrangements
If the American soldiers who come over to
help us gain our liberty keep under canvas
at night, drink spring or distilled water
be spared for the Spanish bullets. But
these Spaniards! Pshawl Kindly bomba rd
Havana with a few of your big ships and
give US all the rifles we have wanted SO
long, and We Will win the island