The San Francisco call., 1898-06-13
SHIPPERS
 ARMY OFF
 TO CUBA
Twenty NiDe Transports Begin tbe Voyage to
 SuDtidgo.
HEADQUARTERS OF CARBINEERS.

NEW YORK, June 12-The Wash ington correspondent of the Herald sends the following:
 Major General Shafter, with his army 17000 strong is at last en route to San tiago de Cuba. This is now officially admitted by the officials. Twenty transports laden with the best material of the Untied States army are tonight nearing Key West where they will join additional conveys from Admiral Sampson's fleet. The authorities all in sist there will be no further delay in the Santiago expedition. They are no longer concerned about the quartet of Spanish gunboats, reported to be as- tray and waiting a favorable oppor- tunity to bounce upon the army trans ports. With strong fleet of naval vessels conveying the transports no fear is entertained for the safety of the expedition. Its arrival at Santiago by Thursday Is expected. Thus 1t seems reasonable to predict that the present week will see the American flag flying over Santiago de Cuba
 The army now on it's way to Santiago comprises the best troops mobilized. It is equipped and armed better than any body of troops the United States has ever sent into the field. Our in- fantry is furnished nearly exclusively with Krag- -Jorgensen rifles, which are considered by ordnance experts the most destructive rife now in use. The insurgents, who are expected to form a junction with the American troops at the place of landing, have been armed by the United States with mod ern Springfield rifles. The army has an abundance of ammunition to carry 1t on long and difficult campaign.
 The transports will be kept as closely together as safe navigation will per init, and the warships will be- esdeployed ahead, astern and on either flank of the fleet Scouting vessels will be thrown far out in advance of the trans ports and in order insure against an attack from the rear, some of these vessels will finger far astern, ready to signal the heavily armored cruisers at the first sign of an approaching foe.
 The battleship Indiana Is expected to lead the ships.
 TAMPA, Fla, June 12.-The censor says we can tell what we saw on Wednesday. We cannot tell what hap pened before that day or after that day. This the scene:
 Men are marching to the tune of a drum and cars are shunting and whistles blowing, and at the end of a long pier trucks are rolling over loose boards loaded with boxes of ammuni- ton and rifles. Whenever they pass the soldiers sleeping on the loose boards are shaken half inch or so and groan in their sleep. Other sleepy and hungry soldiers fall out of army transports and walk over the bodies of men asleep on | the boards The day has begun and no | one has slept, and soon the water is | covered with boats laden with baggage and men, and the transports are crowd | ed with men at the port holes shoulder | to shoulder on the decks and on the superstructure men hanging on ratlines are crucifled against the sky on the mainStays.
 | The sun comes out fierce and brazen. | There Is not enough wind to raise the flags on the halliards. The bay is like a mirror with quicksilver on fire. Over this lake of blazing quicksilver great | transports move slowly out into mid stream, and as each stirs and feels the 1 first pull of the towing line. hundreds of American soldiers hanging to their sides take off their sombreros and cheer, and the bands on the decks play | "The Star Spangled Banner; and as they pass the transports at anchor the soldiers cheer each other, and the crowds on the fer cheer them, and the hot air is torn with their voices and famed with thousands of hats beating 1t and raised in relief and rejoicing. That is where the scene halts for the present
 RICHARD HARDING DAVIS.
 TAMPA, Fla, June 12.-The expedi- ton that sailed from here to Key West prior to going to Santiago was made up of nearly twenty regiments of in- fantry of from 800 to $50 men each, in- cluding, besides four regiments of the Fifth Army Corps. four regiments of