The herald., 1898-10-30
INTO A CANNON'S MOUTH
The Thrilling Adventure of Phil Robinson
in the War With Spain
In Small Boat With Single Companion and Napkin, He
Invaded Matanzas-A Newspaper Incident That
Amazed Two Con inents

and we find ourselves alone on the sea, a
worm for the early gunboat bird to pick
up; and ahead OF us Cuba, with proving
cavalry patrols all along it's terraced coast
we, expected, of course, to be sighted and
challenged, probably fired upon; and our
intention was, if this happened, to row
straight toward our challengers, be arrested
by them and carried before the command
ant. But nobody bothered themselves much
about such small beer as we were. even
the .sea-things made believe we were toe
small to notice. A party of sooty-colorcd
terms, scudding low along the sea, took us
ON their way and flew over our boat, passing
between my companion and myself; Il com
pany of porpoises, feeding lazily, only hall
awake perhaps, didn't trouble to get out OF
our way, and we could have tossed biscuits
on to their backs as we passed through.
Through our glasses we saw that Matan
zas was evidently waking up to the work
OF the day. A fisherman shook out his sal
to the light breeze that was blowing up; a
party of convicts under soldiers escort were
| tramping towards IA battery. On sudder
on our right there appeared patrol of cav
airy coming towards us along the coast
" hen they were abreast of us they halted
took good look at us, dismounted, and took
cover in the BUSH Look out" | said, $50.
volley," but no volley came. Baling the
boat with my right hand ] waggled the ia
bic napkin overhead with the other. Wheth
er they accepted it as a flag of truce or not
cannot say, but they neither fired nor chal
lenged And we went on our way and round
the curve we came plump onto new bat
tory covered with bushes and an officer came
out OF his tent and looked at us through his
glasses, and then number of soldiers ran
to gun, and we waited. Somebody on
shore shouted to us, but the sound came to
us too family for us to accept it as rea-
sonable challenge, and we rowed on, chang
ing our course a little so as to give the gun
ners, if they really meant to fire only an
end-on shot, and holding out toward the
opposite short. And the white napkin
waggled gallantly.
We waited for a long time for the expec!
ed shot, but it never came; and, finding
ourselves getting dangerously near the other
shore, from which we were evidently under
once more Tor the center of the harbor, and
10! on sudden, Matanzas The sun was
now above the coast, the headland had dis.
appeared and we found ourselves fairly in.
slde the harbor. TO our left, three or four
miles ahead, were row of white buildings
and abreast of us battery, men busy ali
about it and laden mules filing along the
road. But nobody took further notice OF
us. FISHING boats were sailing about, and
though one passed us its occupants paid nc
attention to so insignificant looking a
stranger. What tale no doubt they had to
tell when, later on, they made the shore and
heard the story of our invasion of Matanzas
how they had suspected us at first sight
and had thought of capturing us, but etc.
AND so on we went unmolested and round
ing the curve the panorama of the pretty
town unfolded itself before us. An italar
OF Spanish seaport with white and yellow
walls and touches of red in the roofs. and
patched with green palms and tropical foil
age, lying ON the slope of the land, whiel
very gradually rises from the sea-line to an
upland. amphitheater ridged with palms. A
beautiful view, and in our surprise at tho
charm of the picture we quite forgot for a
while that we were rowing straight to pris.
on. That this would be our fate we fully
expected, but we hoped in the end to make
H. al right with our captors and be set at
liberty "on parole" to watch the events of
the war from inside. But all the same, we
ana not wish to run straight into the un-
merciiui niS, hands OF Spanish mob, and as
Whighain rowed straight ahead i kept a
lockout Tor quiet landing place
hight IN front OF us came in sight the jet
ty, alongside which, alas. there had been no
craft for, many day. On the farther side
OF 1T under some trees was evidently some
kind OF market place and a crowd; on the
nearer side only some little children, yellow,
brown and black, padding at the waters
edge. We headed straight for the little folk.
and to my surprise they took our coming
quite philosophically. "Pesetas'' was the
first word we said to them 1t has all the
magic of sc backshish" in the east. And the
small amphibians huddled on their frae
mentary clothing, and putting each of them
very easy load on their heads-one con.
sidered himself fully loaded when he had
got the jampot balanced on his woolly little
head escorted us through the streets
to the Hotel du Louvre. For ''hotel en-
bueno0 were the only other words we said
and Louvre muy bueno" was their reply; !;
so committing ourselves to their guidance
we went straight ahead.
Soldiers swarmed everywhere; the sheds
at the landing place, the public buildings,
the theaters that we passed were crammed
with them; all along the streets on the
shady side they lay IN heaps. As we passed
they could not believe their eyes, stared at
us stupidly, some with open mouths; few
jumped up to their feet. Two or three
times only we heard eXclamations in very
unfriendly tones, but we had taken them ali
too much by surprise. Behind us as we went
we left quite tumult of excited voices: in
front of us the crowds lay about listless, un.
expectant, unprepared for SO spectral an
apparition, and let us come ND to them and
pass through them without any demonstra.
ton. had had exactly similar experience
before and knew how serious our situation
really was. A. single child shouting at lis
"Americano! might easily have cost us our
lives, and later on we gathered from officials
that they considered our successful audacity
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