The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-08
ROBSON ROYALTY WELCOMED
GREAT DEMONSTRATION FOLLOW- INC EXCHlNGE OF PRISONERS.

Morro Castle-Nothing But the Highest
 Admiration for Admiral Cervera-
 Hobson Rides Twelve Miles to Shore
 and starts for Snmpson's Flagship.
 Off Jurugua, July 6, via Kingston, Jamaica, July TIA great demonstration took place all along the American lines to-day following the exchange of Naval Constructor Hobson and his mates of the Merrimac for Spanish lieutenant and other Spaniards captured during the Santiago engagements. As the Merrimac heroes approached the Amer ican lines the troops left their entrench- ments and cheered frantically. Thou sands of soldiers crowded about and thrust forward their hands to greet Hobson while his companions were lift ed upon the shoulders of the enthusias- tic infantrymen and carried forward.
 The naval constructor finally reach- ed General Wheeler's headquarters, where the veteran cavalryman and other officers gave him a warm wei come By this time Captain Chadwick of the New York and the naval officers of the flagship had reached Hobson and his men, and they were the first per- sons with whom the rescued prisoners had any previous acquaintance that they had met since they left on their perilous mission. Captain Chadwick extended the heartiest congratulations. Before leaving for the seacoast Hobson
 was taken to General Shafter's head
 quarters and warmly greeted by the
 commanding general.
 The correspondent of the Associated
 Press asked Hobson for an interview
 and statement as to his experiences on
 the terrible night when he took the
 collier Merrimac into Santiago harbor. He declined to say anything with re-
 gard to the Merrimac on the ground that he intended to submit a complete
 report to the government. With re-
 gard to his experiences as a prisoner of war he said:
 During the first four days we were
 prisoners of war we were confined in Morro Castle, and I can assure you they were extremely uncomfortable
 and disagreeable days. The Spaniards did not exactly i'll treat us, but it took
 them some time to recover from the ! shock caused by what most of them
 considered our Yankee impudence in trying to block their harbor. As rule the officers and men who came into
 contact with us were gruff in speech and sullen in manner. There were
 many threatening glances in our direc- ton. For Admiral Cervera I have nothing but the highest admiration and personal regard.
 His act, informing Admiral Sampson 1 of our safety, I regard as that of a kind hearted, generous man and chiv- alrous officer. I expressed to him my 1 sincere thanks and the thanks of my | men for taking this means of relieving l the anxiety of our shipmates and our l friends at home. He repeatedly spoke l to me of his admiration of what he | called one of the most daring acts in
 naval history, though I am sure we
 were not entitled to the commendation | we received, for there were hundreds | of other men on our ships who would
 have been glad to undertake to do the same thing.
 While we were in Morro Castle we | were naval prisoners; but at the end | of four days we were transferred to | the jurisdiction of the army and were | removed to the Rena Mercedes hos 1 pital on the outskirts of Santiago, where we remained until to-day We l knew but little of what was going on, | though of course we could always tell l when our fleet was bombarding the | shore batteries, and we could easily | distinguish the terrific explosions caus- | ed by the Vesuvius throwing dynamite | shells. Several times at night we were i also fully aware that the land bat | teries were sighting outside the city. l Last Friday and Saturday it would be l difficult to explain how anxious we 1 were for news of the success of our
 side during the engagements. The lit- | tie information the Spaniards would | give us could not be relied upon.
 l "One thing that I found out in the | hospital was that large number of | Spanish officers were wounded in last | Fridays fight, for many were brought
 to the hospital to be treated. Numbers of badly aimed bullets came through
 the hospital windows Friday Our quarters there were very clean and comfortable and the food was fairly 1 good. In fact, I have no reason to 1 complain of our treatment as prison-
 CTS of war. The prejudice which the Spaniards showed against us during | the first few days soon wore away. We 1 conducted ourselves properly and sim 1 ply forced them to treat us well.
 'We knew nothing about the de-
 struction of Admiral Cervera's fleet
 until told by our own people to-day. Of course our confinement became very irksome and I cannot tell you how i great was the relief we felt to be free
 again. I cannot express my gratitude | to our soldiers who gave us such a | welcome when we came into the lines. | All of us are in excellent health and | glad to go back to our boats again and see the war through to the end" Hob- 1 son proved himself to be as good a 1 horseman as he is a sailor. The twelve
 mile gallop from the front to Jurugua
 was made very quickly, though owing | to the delay in leaving General Shaf- | ter's headquarters it was dusk before he arrived on the beach and took the
 boat to go to the flagship.
 A S3O,OOO Robbery.
 Cleveland. July "A special iron | N IL,