The herald., 1898-06-21
SITUATION IN HAVANA
MERCHANTS ARRIVING IN THIS
COUNTRY EVERY DAx
Say the People in Cuba's Capital Are
Starving-How the Blockade
Has Been Avoided


patch has reached here from Havana after
having been more than three days on the.
way. 1t is from a merchant and deals with
private affairs, but has three ominous
words, affairs growing worse" referring
to the conditions of the city.
Some letters from Havana have also ar
rived. They were three weeks on the way.
They state that the outlook Is desperate
and that there is no possibility of keeping
the insurgents out of the best part of the
province. They constantly harass the city,
cut off the supplies and destroy the roads.
General Blanco sent out force to dis.odge
the insurgents, but the train was derailed
and the soldiers had to retreat and came
back leaving many dead.
The blockade Is said to have been run sew
eral times by small vessels, but the total
stores and ammunition landed was of little
account. The statement Is made that the
city and garrison cannot Withstand a close
inves tment.
The populace believe Great Britain and the
United States have united in the blockade.
The officers of H. M S. Talbot were said to
have obtained valuable information on the
condition of the garrison and reported 1t to
Admiral Cervera's fleet had been sunk and
Santiago is at SIMPSONS mercy.
Dodging the Blockade
KEY WEST, Fla, June ia prominent
resident of Havana who left that place on
the 5th inst. arrived here yesterday on his
way to New York. His description of the
situation in Havana at the time he left con-
tradicts widespread reports of famine and
in that city and throws new
light on the effectiveness of the blockade,
which, it appears, fails in its purpose so
far as cutting off all means of supplies and
with the outside world Is
His story is entitled to full credence and
coming as 1t does from one OF
the leading merchants of Havana, foreign
resident unbiased In his views or sympa-
thies. He reports, in the first place, that
is practically an open port, as 1t
IS not blockaded on its southern approach
Batabano, on the south side, is only forty
miles from Havana, with which city 1t is
by rail. Batabano has never
been more than shipping point and head
quarters for the sponge fisheries of South
ern Cuba and landing place for the Isle
Of Pines ferryboats, which there connect
with the northbound trains for Havana.
The water between Batabano and the Isle
Of Pines being very shallow, no where ex-
ceeding nine feet in depth and therefore in
accessible to any large craft, has caused
the Isle of Pines to be overlooked as a
possible entrepot or base of supplies for
West Cuba, and as point deserving greater
than that attached to a fifth
rate and mismanaged penal colony.
1t appears, however, that constant traffic
has been kept up between the Isle of Pines
and Yucatan and that full cargoes of pro-
visions and live stock have been regularly
landed there's from steamers, schooners and
other sailing vessels unmolested by Ameri-
can warships, which rarely If ever patrol
these waters.
The work of transhipping these cargoes
to Batabano by the fiat bottom ferry boats
plying between that port and
Nueva Gueron, the principal port of the
Isle of Pines, has been an easy matter, as
also the subsequent transportation to Ha-
vana by rail.
In the first four days Of June, 1t is as
serted, over eight hundred head of cattle
we're landed at Batabano, besides large
quantities of flour and grain. Not only are
he shipments not limited to supplies of
provisions and the necessaries of life, but,
,ur informer reports, coal in large quanti-
lies is also brought over. The statement
practically confirms the report that the
Spanish government has established large
coal depots on the Yucatan canal.
At the outbreak of hostliities 1t was re-
pOrta6 that HaVana had sufficient
supplies in store to last six months. Since
then, it is asserted, fresh shipments have
been received by way of Batabano and the
Isle of Pines far in excess of the consump-
ton, so that apparently, so far as suffering
from the evils of the blockade is con-
Havana has kept up the even tenor
Of an unruffled existence with sufficient
stores on hand to last another half year.
A gay and cheerful note in these warliSe
times is sounded by the announcement,
that, by way of this same Batabano route,
an intrepid "Campania de Searsequa," or
theatrical troupe from Mexico, made its
appearance in Havana and has since been
playing to full houses at the theater, un-
mindful of the impending fate that hangs
over the doomed city. The daily routine of
life, it is added, continues unaltered and
theater parties and the usual social diver
sions are indulged in as in times of peace.
Following the usages of warfare, prac-
ticed by Spaniards and Cubans alike, it is
to be confidently expected that at least
one-half of the Vuelta Abajo crop would be
ruined or set on fire in the field, but much
to the general surprise, almost the entire
output of the Vuelta Abajo and Remedies
district has been shipped and stored in
Havana warehouses. One firm alone. it Is
alleged, had 10,500 bales of tobacco stored
In Havana on the first of June, valued at
over l,5OO 900.
The general health is reported by the
merchants to be particularly good, espec-
lally for this season of the year, and he de-
MES the reported ravages of yellow fever
and smallpox on the island. He confirms
the military activity noticed and recorded
by the officers on blockade duty and con-
siders Havana today very strongly forti-
fed. Work on the new batteries and earth
works is kept up night and day, and judg-
ing from outward and visible signs and
from the tone and language of the officials
in Havana, the Spaniards are preparing to
defend the city to the last and intend only
to strike their colors when the "derniere
has been fired.
->