The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-01-13

to Domingo. Inc majority however,
dri ted through the entrance of Guam
tanamo Bay, only one hundred miles
, from Haiti, and pushing inland
camped at the foot of the hills, where
they found sugar cane growing wild.
Sugar.
What rice, was to the early settlers
of South Carolina, sugar cane proved
to be to the French colonizers of
Guantanamo. The Spanish govern
ment was friendly and granted every
encouragement, giving land, not by
the acre but by the square miles in
stead. Soon cane was being cultivat-
ed on thousands of square miles of
fertile valleys and mountain tracts
the labor being furnished by the en-
slaved Indians and Africans of whom
the number in those days was very
great. The world famous haciendas
of San Carlos, Santa Catalina, Los
Canos and Soledad, we're founded and
over them, the French, who had no
intercourse other than official with
the Spanish, ruled like feudal lords.
The property passed from father to
eldest son, and, until the exploitation
of the region by American capital at
close of the Spanish-American war,
remained in the hands of the direct
descendants of the settlers who fled
from Haiti during the dark days of
1890.
Today, the llaciendas are deserted
and, where once the haciendado
ruled in oriental luxury, are heard
the gruff orders of American fore
men, the click of Underwood type
writer's, and the songs of thousands
of West Indians working amid the
rattle of American made sugar ma
ch:lery. Only one of the great es-
tates remain. This is Yuruguana,
sixty-fve square miles in area. But
We are off the American naval reser-
vstion and should return.
Fort Toro.
The ease with which the British
had entered led the Spanish to COM
mence a comprehensive scheme of
defense for the bay, the possession of
which practically meant the owner
ship of the entire eastern end OF the.
island. Accordingly, Fort Toro, with
it's elaborate system Of walls, moats,.
angles, dungeons and great cisterns,
was built to withstand prolonged
siege. At first, in the arid wastes,
the fort attracted little attention, but,
as colonists Increased in numbers and
Spanish repression created in them
an ever increasing yearning for Cuba
Libre, Toro became symbol of ter
roism, much the same to the Cuban.
patriot as was the Bastile to the
French revolutionists.
i u0 lOlI ID uSSSt LOo uOW, 1I0 uAo
dismantled, it's moats filled, but gray
haired Cubans still tell in hushed
tones of the cruelty it's naughty gov
ernors practiced in the days of their
af11uence. "Was it not there, in Nu-.
nero 13, that Jauana de la Barra, af-
ter her father had been brutally mur-
dered and his estates sequestered for
alleged conspiracy, was kept as SER
want of the Spanish governor until
her youth and beauty had left her?'
And, Pedro Pianos, remember his
horrible death by garrotte before the
eyes of his aged mother and faithful
sweetheart?"
These stories, handed down from
generation to. generation, are told by
dozens, and. undoubtedly, the Span
lard suffers increased odium each
time they are retold, but enough re-
mains to justify us in believing that
the history of Fort Toro, like that of
La Cabana at Habana and Ell Moro
at Santiago, was bloody and horrible
enough to mark it for: destruction as
soon as the Cuban patriot became
strong enough to throw off the yoke.
And so it happened in the 30's, and
again in the terrible revolution of
the 7O's and finally in '96 and '98,
Toro became the scene of fierce en-
counters. Attack after attack was
launched against the fortress, but
each time the Cuban machete could
not cope with the Spanish Mauser,
and about the only discomfort the
garrison suffered was the invariable
hunting through the dense under
brush and cacti after the fight for the
bodies of the despised Cubans, which,
rotting beneath a tropical sun, dis
turbe6 their revels within a few
hours after the last gun had been
fired.
The Spanish army in Cuba suffer-
ed single defeat in the open at the
bands of tho H,,horc IT was On1v