The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-20

few Gloucester sailors who were pres
ent said that thew could take care of
the wounded man, and would take him
to the Gloucester. if they could, as soon
as their launch should come for them
Accordingly | turned the chair over to
them, got into my boat and returned
to the Wanda.
L do not know what became of the
wounded Spanish sailor | never heard
of him afterwards; but I believe that
he must have died in the pool where
left him before the sailors on shore
could get him in the chair and take
him to the Gloucester. If he did die in
the pool. which | cannot doubt owing
to his frightful wounds, and the fact
that he lay in the burning sun so long
without surgical attention, 1T is not like
~ that he found any other tomb, for it
was no time nor occasion to be over
particular about dead man, as dead
men We're rather numerous in that To-
Cality then. and the unfortunate sailor
whose mangled body was left lying in
his own blood on the sun-blistered
rocks of Cuba shared no worse fate
than scores of others whose bodies | saw
that day floating in the sea, either to
become food for sharks or to be ground
to pieces when the incoming tide should
throw them against the rock bound
shore.
When the Gloucester sailors finally
returned to their own vessel they un-
doubtedly left the Wanda's chair on the
shore. and / believe there is not the
slightest doubt that that chair after
wards became the death couch and then
the tomb of Admiral Villamil. He was
doubtless lying near us at the time l
was on shore. but none of the Ameri-
cans found him, which was not remark
able, as there We're very few Americans
on shore, and he could easily have been
concealed behind the rocks along the
beach or in the thick brush back of
them. If the Spanish sailors who had
been captured knew the Admiral's hid
ing place they did not divulge it to the
Americans. 1t may be that it was by
the officers own orders that his men
had carried him to some lonely spot in
the thicllet where he preferred to have
the spirit leave him while he was still
free soldier of Spain rather than die
prisoner in the hands of his countryS
enemies. Whether he was placed in the
chair before or after he was dead can
be told only by the Spanish sailors who
placed him there. and they only also
can tell whether they left him alone to
die or waited beside him until after
the breath left his body. 1t seems hard
~ possible that General Wood and the
other American officers can be mis-
taken in their Identification of the body,
but if they are there can be but one
theory in regard to it, and that is that
the body was that Of the sailor whom I
left lying in the pool and for whom the
chair was sent ashore He may have
been placed in the chair by the Ameri-
can sailors and died there before he
could be taken to the Gloucester. Bur
this theory regard as extremely doubt
full, and, at any rate, its truth of falsity
can be demonstrated by the Gloucester
officer and the sailors who remained on
shore after I left
But when the report of the findinp Of
the BODY was first received here from
Santiago and it was said to he that nr
the Puton's cantain r fe1t confident
that that could not ba correct for
had the stronges, reasons for beliaying
the contrary raasone Witch 49,,
founded on the fact that less than an
hour after ,the occurrences raIatad IN
lthe forapoine Vac intrndroed h,, a.,
tenant rnmmandar wsinHr,.rb+ ~
conor,o,dar ~ 40 Cta,,aoi.te ny
Snanish nfticar antire,,, nnininrad " n,,a
ranrasantnG ;n,sair as ~ n.ptni, "no
~ pI,ltN,, ~ 80 f's ,iiu .ap.ail VI
~ 49, I1,,;.a, % a.: Us 'aheh
S,,,,,;., ~, ''e' nien t.le otheI
i,, ni'n - ot,i.,i,, anu, rs ID, as l
nv NV" N"a ietu' lieu " spain wien the
,,r,y,-
men go pach 10 the anda after
naNlhs ieil me chaiT on shofe with the
gloucester sailors, l was very much
SUI plAseu 10 ma that during my alb
Sehce three olilcers ana SIX sailors be-
lohsihS 10 the fluton mad taken refuse
apoaru the wanda. Ihey mad easily
escaped from the small guard or Amer
lcail SAILORS on shore ana mad put out
10 the WANDA IN one or the Plutons
ooats "nlch had t1oated ashore Their
reason lof gong TO the Wanda was
that the yacht mad British registry and
ne" me bfltlsh nag. put her nag was
the ohly thlns Brltlsh about her, fact
Which ,ne Spanlards did not know. She
Iau Dig hearted YANKEE skipper in
,aptaln Miller and when the boat
ioau OF nan drowned ana half starved
3paniarus came alongside, ne forgot all
ABOUT the color or the Wanda's flag and
tle poSsloility OF any annoying compll-
catiohs that these Spanlards might
cause US he could nave directed them
70 80 70 the 1loucester, winch was
,heh not more imam a mile away stand
l,s ny me eAploolns wrecks OF the
Marla Teresa anu oquehoo. receiving