Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1898-04-06
HAVANA VERY WEAK.
HER DEFENSES COULD NOT RE.
SlST MODERN GUNS.
The Cuban Capital City Has Many a'or-
tihcations, but They Are of the An
tiquated Kind. Not Strongly Built
and Are Poorly Equipped.
Medieval Fortresses.

1Ine WAS wien the CITY OF havana
was one of the strong places of the
world. That was In the days when
battle ships carried as many as 125
pop-guns, against whose puny fire tow
erlng walls of massive granite served
as an impregnable defense. Modern
ordnance, with Its monster shot and al.
most fabulous range, has changed all
that, and to-day Havana is not only not
the mighty fortress that it once was,
Dut, despite the fact that vast sums
have within the last two years been
squandered on is defenses, 1t can now
hardly be considered as capable of of
fering any serious resistance to attack,
either by land or sea.
The seaward defenses Of Havana
may be divided into two classes-those
within the harbor and at its entrance.
which are Interesting only from an an
tquarian and picturesque aspect, and
the modern works, armed with a few
pieces of heavy breechloading ord
nance, which, since the beginning of
the war, have been erected along the
shores east and west of the harbor
mouth.
Best known of all the forts of Haya-
ma is the world-renowned Moro Castle,
the marvelously picturesque medieval
stronghold that crowns that rocky emil
nence at the left of the entrance of the
harbor. A hundred years ago its mas
sive bastions, bristlng with the heavi-
est artillery of the period, frowned de-
fiance to the nayies of the world. Now
the Moro, stripped of all armament
save a few harmless cannon, serves
only as prison, as , garrison for re-
cruits from Spain andas a signal station
and pedestal for the great lighthouse
thattowers boye the seaward height of
the fortress Just across the eastern
ditch. Dividing it from the castle prop
er Is an outwork known as the Velasco
Battery. Across the harbor from the
MORO stands the quaint old Castillo de
La Punta, square Fashioned stone
fort, mounting three or four old Par
rotts and a solitary 15-inch Rodman of
the kind which is now being removed
to make room for modern ordnance. Be-
yond the Punta, all the way to the Cav
alleria wharf, the shore Is fairly en-
crusted with the remains of batteries,
In their day most formidable, but now
stripped of armament and used only
as barracks or store houses.
The walls of the stupendous fortress
known as La Cabana crown the
heights on the eastern shore of the
harbor from near the southern sally
port Of the MORO all the way TO the vii
lage Of Casa Blanca in an unbroken
palisade of gray and white stone, stain
ed here and there with broad splashes
Of vivid red. La Cabana is now moth
Ing but vast prison and place Of exc
cution. Originally designed to mount
hundreds of guns, 1t now possesses only
a saluting battery and five small rifles,
with a few ancient pieces, which are
only available for defense against a
land attack. TIE condition of La Ca
bana's ordnance may be inferred from
the fact that the garrison, after super
human exertions, was only able to re-
turn the Names national salute of
twenty-one guns with nineteen strag-
Cling shots, delivered in what one of
the American officers declared TO be the
"raggedest salute l ever heard"
Most formidable of all the modern
defensive works of Havana Is the great
sand battery at Playa del Chlvo, on the