The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-15
Who Travelled Over Seventy Miles
over Cuban Hills and Returned safe-
ly with Valuable Information.
BODIES OF DEAD MUTILATED
STORIES OF SPANISH BARBARITY
CONFIRMED By ADMIRAL SAMPSON.
Marines Who Were Killed in the First
Engagement on Guantanamo Bay
Hacked with Machetes.

WASHINGTON June 14-The only bull
letin posted at the Navy Department to-day
from Sampson contained the satisfactory
news that an American naval officer, Lieut.
Victor Blue, of South Carolina, at the risk
of his life, had succeeded in encircling the
bay of Santiago and counting the Spanish
vessels therein, with the result Of establish-
ing the fact that all of Cervera's fleet were
bottled UP. The bulletin follows:
Mole ST. Nicholas, June 13-Lieutenant
Blue has just returned after a detour of
seventy statute miles of observation of the
harbor of Santiago de Cuba. He reports
that Spains fleet is all there. The Span
iards attacked vigorously the camp at
Guantanamo. An outpost of four marines
were killed and the bodies mutilated bar
barously. Surgeon Gibbs was killed
SAMPSON"
Thus the last lingering doubt that may
have existed as to the presence of Cervera's
fleet in it's entirety in Santiago harbor has
been removed. Up to the receipt of Samp-
sons message information as to the number
and character of vessels lying in the har-
Dor, shielded from observation in great part
by the hills at the entrance, had been OBJ
tanned through Cuban sources supplements
ed by such glimpses as could be obtained by
naval officers from the outside entrance.
Now, however, according to Lieutenant
Blue, the ships have been actually seen by
an American officer, counted and inspected
from such points of vantage as were af-
forded by the high hills surrounding the
harbor. The officials here are full Of praise
for Lieutenant Blues achievement XictoA
Blue has been long known in the navy as an
enterprising and daring young officer, but 1t
required good deal of sustained courage
for him to go ashore in hostile country
and alone make his reconnaissance He was.
in the eve of military law, nothing more or
less than a spy, and had he been caught by
the Spaniards he would have been tried by
drumhead court-martial and executed.
Considering the fact that the marines
fight at Guantanoma last Saturday night
was really the first engagement of the war
on shore, Admiral SIMPSONS reference to
the affair in his dispatch, printed this morn
ing, was remarkably brief Hence 1t is In
ferred that perhaps too much importance
had been attached to it by the public. The
action of Lieutenant Colonel Huntington In
removing his men to a more secure point
than the exposed position occupied by them
on Crest Heights is taken here as an indica-
ton that no offensive movement is to be
attempted by the marine corps, but that
IL Will llinll llS OpcEldlOlS ~ Tie uCAcIlSG
of a small point in Guantanamo harbor to
protect the coaling of our war ships and
perhaps to serve as cable station. 1t does
not follow by any means that the place
seized and held by the marines on Guanta-
namo bay is to be used as a point of de-
barkation of the United States regular
troops now on their way to Cuba. On the
contrary there is the best reason to be-
lieve that another point very much better
adapted for a landing has been selected, and
that point also is believed to be much
healthier than any point on the shores Of
Guantanamo bay, where yellow fever Ia
said to be epidemic all the year round.
The officials here were very reluctant to
believe that the Spaniards who fought the
marines at Crest Heights had been guilty
of the horrible barbarism of Enutilating the
bodies of soldiers. The first press reports
were supposed to be based upon the hor-
rible wounds inflicted under certain condi-
tions of range by the steel-clad bullets OF
the Mauser rifles. Admiral Sampson's re-
port, however, seems to remove all doubt
on that point, for his surgeons undoubtedly
could be able to distinguish at once between
the effects Of a bullet and a machete