Year: 1873

and that night confined in the jail.
The next morning they were informed
that they should be taken to Havsns
for trial, but three hours after sunrise
they were all taken outside OF the city
and shot. This act created cousidera-
BILE excitement at the time, but Sc II wss
imprisonment to speak oft, it WAS soon
hushed up.


"The families OF those men thus sho,
were placed on trial for the acts OF the
heads OF these families, and, as Q re.
suit, their property was coutiscated,
they were declared psupers, and. at the
same time, the populsce was forbidden
urder pain OF punishment, TO render
any OF them any assistance. Thus,
being deprived Of home and shelter,
food, and the means OF obtaining it, for
bidden to leave the jurisdiction OF SAM
tisgo de Cuba; these poor, helpless crea-
lures sought shelter in the woods near
here, and became one common family.


"But the inhumanities, cruelties and
barbarities which these women AID
children have been subjected to passes
the belief OF civilized being. / could
not describe what / have seen and been
unable to prevent. All robberies are
laid to their door, and even supposed
robberies were gotten up, so that the
chase OF the bloodhound might be wit
messed by the rabble, and the suffering
OF some one OF the poor beings added
to their thirst for morbid depraylty.


at was not two months after the ex-
ecutions that saw one OF the women,
who was about TO become mother,
placed between two boards, upon which
sat heavy, burly savage, surrounded
By a dozen sol liers and several officers,
who were trying to compel this helpless
being to confess crime OF robbery
which had previously investigated and
could | find nothing that warrant
ed the belief of a robbery having been
committed. Her dead body WAS left
there, and four days after, when the
stencil compelled its burial, it was
found to have been partly devoured 10y
dogs. Since that time to the present
these poor creatures have been subject
ed to outrages beyond description or
prehenslon by the people OF a COM
munity such as You live in,


There are now but few living, per-
haps thirty or forty souls, though in
1869 they numbered in all over three
hundred. Some died from starvation,
others from exposure, while the ma jority
OF them were killed by bloodhounds,
for it is one Of the sports OF these brutes
to hunt these poor as game. | have
seen the bodies OF those whose sex
could not be distinguished by reason OF
mutilation. An attempt 10 exterminate
them was made few days ago by the
Volunteers and some OF the crew Of the
Tornado. When the Virginius WAS
brought into the harbor, il was made
the occasion OF great festivities, and
liquor flowed freely. Towards midnight
a party Of three men, with hounds to
hunt their victims, started for the
woods. No one dared to prevent what
it was known would follow. The next
morning they boasted in the streets OF
what had taken place, and related with
pride and pleasure the violence to which
they had subjected these women and
girls, some OF the latter being only ten
years old.


with an associate official we that
afternoon peoceeded into the woods
and ordered the burial oi nine whom
we found dead Seven were suffering
from violence that | cannot describe;
one was black in the face, che having
been choked TO death, while another
had her entire breast bitten of. Ire
turned sick at heart, unable 10 render
the slightest assistance, though had
been compelled to look on with apra-
rent indifference.


by means ofLegroes we render them
what assistance we can. Clothing we
cannot send, as this might be identified
but food and medicines we have so far
been able safely TO send through slaves,
who have more pity for these beings
than they who once shared the bounty
and hospitality OF those they now per-
secute"