A Cuban Expedition

Preface

. The reader who looks for an exact description of Cuba, its scenery and productions, in the following pages will be disappointed. The Author passed the few months he spent there as a soldier in one of the unfortunate expeditions that have landed on its shores. The West Indies have been the scene of many daring adventures and cruel sufferings in times past, and the island of Cuba has been pre-eminent in that respect. What lives have been wasted and sufferings endured, in abortive attempts of the people to separate themselves from Spain, will pro bably never be known. The Author, when a boy, took part, as narrated in the text, in one of the expeditions whose object was to assist the Cubans in their struggle for ina* VI

PREFACE.

. dependence ; like many youths, he was eager for adventure, and when the proposal was made to him, shortly after his arrival in America, he accepted.it. He does not pretend to know much about the political differences between the Cubans and the Mother Country ; he simply relates his experience as a soldier and a sailor, in its naked reality, and stripped of the glamour of romance which some people like to throw round everything relating te a life of adventure. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Pao

The Darthula — The expedition sails — At sea — Our Colonel makes a speech — Recruits sea-sick — A man overboard — Running before a gale . . . . 1

Chapter II

Barney — His story — Blackbird catching — The " Isle of Pines " — The slaver's hidden money — Tarns 12

Chapter III

Arrival on the coast of Cuba — Chased by a war steamer — Short of coal — Run for the Mosquito coast — Wood-cutting — March inland — An Indian village and women — Polygamy and Polyandry . . . .23 CHAPTER IT. Barney — His story — Tempted to desert— Barney's plan — His idea of happiness CONTENTS. VIII

Chapter V. Page

My first smoke — Barney's plan frustrated — We sail again — Blewfields — Sick— Attempt to land at Cuba — Chased by a war brig — Under fire — Threatened mutiny — Boat shot away ...... 50

Chapter VI

We outmanœuvre the brig — Run in at night — Disembark men and arms — March for the interior — First encounter with the enemy — Sick men — Quartered at a sugar-mill — Pursuit of lighters on the river — Coopering — We decide to make a raft ... 67

Chapter VII

The Ingenio — A lesson in fortification — We intend to march on Bayamo — Comandante Fernandez — The Chigoe — Men dying — Party of enemy appear — We are sent in pursuit — Sufferings in a swamp — We find the enemy and lose two officers — Rumoured defeat of Cubans in the mountains .... 82

Chapter VIII

Burial of our officers — Our first prisoners — Return to the Ingenio — Arrive in time to take part in the fight 97

Chapter IX

Changes — Ridley sick — Messengers from the junta request us to hurry forward — We evacuate the mill — On the march — Mule-driving — Storey's plan — Dead men — Captains Ryan and Wingate .... CONTENTS. IX PAGE 141

Chapter XIII

San Jacinto — Spanish roofs — Fernandez leaves us with one of the guns — Ditching — Shower-baths — Spanish troops — Besieged — Dig out old guns — Mounting gun on church tower — Enemy reconnoitring — We drive them back — We open fire — Gun bursts .

Chapter XIV

The enemy attack — They fall back — They attack again — Repulse of the enemy — Out at night looking for food — Astray — Spanish sentries — Going to die — Thoughts of home— I get my bananas — Get back safely 158- CONTENTS. X PAGE 195 209 223

Chapter XV

Enemy reinforced with artillery— They open fire— Shells bursting in the plaza — Death of Hodson — The night march — Overtaken by the enemy— Defeated — Escape wounded — My horse saves me — Captain Ryan wounded — Death of Storey 176

Chapter XVI

A friendly planter — Curing the sick — Shift our quarters — Rest — I get well — Men get lock-jaw — On the march again — A thunderstorm — The " Isla " — Safety

Chapter XVII

Shooting deer and pigeons — A pigeon-roost — Ball practice on alligators— Surprised by the enemy — A cavalry charge — Thrown from my horse and roll into the river — A swim for life — Our leader and half our number missing — Escape through a swamp

Chapter XVIII

Resting in the forest — Using fruit for ointment — Presence of mind, which treats of Spanish America .

Chapter XIX

We reach the coast — Cocoa-nuts and their owner — Shipwrecked sailors — Trinidad and Casilda — We stop in time — In rags — Hiding in the mangrove swamp — Ships in harbour— We swim off to one — Reception on board CONTENTS. XI PAGE 250 286-

Chapter XX

The captain agrees to take two — He promises to place the others — Ashton and I are tra nsferred to the Tyre) — The Scotch skipper — Our wretched condition — Quartered with the apprentices . . . 244

Chapter XXIV

Going north — Cold weather — Hardships of a sailor's life — Reefing topsails — Calling the watch — In the Channel — Painting ship — Towing up the Thames — In dock — Ashton starts for home — My relations

Chapter I

The Darthula — The expedition sails — At sea — Our Colonel makes a speech — Recruits sea-sick — A man overboard — Running before a gale. In the interval from the death of Narciso Lopez in 1851, to the insurrection headed by Cespedes, Alvarez, Garcia, and others in 1868, Cuba was supposed to be at peace. There is no account of any rising during these seventeen years, yet there were two if not more in that time ; in fact, I doubt if the island was ever thoroughly pacified. Seven years after the shooting of Colonel Crit tenden and his companions, in Havana, another expedition was equipped with men and arms from the United States ; the barque Darthula was loaded with arms and ammunition in an American port, and 285 men, of whom the writer was one, embarked in the same vessel while she lay in New York harbour.

It was late in the evening when I went on board the vessel, and found myself amongst a crowd of B young fellows of from eighteen to twenty-five years of age, who bad engaged themselves to join the ranks of the patriot army in Cuba. In all that crowd I did not know a single one. I walked here and there among them, looking and listening for some sign by which I could claim an acquaintanceship with some of them, but they were all strangers to me. I recognised some as country men by their accent, but they were not such as I should choose as intimates, and I began to realise that I had associated myself with some very doubtful characters. When I grew tired of watching them, and looking about the decks, I went below to the ship's 'tween decks, and found them fitted up with rough bunks, roughly put together, of sawn pine lumber, and having nothing to do I threw myself into one of them, and placing my little parcel of clothing, all I was possessed of, under my head for a pillow, I was soon fast asleep.

I was awakened early next morning before daylight, by hearing some one at my feet getting sick, and I knew at once, from the motion of the ship, that we were under weigh. I must have slept soundly, not withstanding my hard bed, for I never heard the noise usually made on board ship in getting the anchor up, or in making sail. I turned out as I had turned in, all standing, as a sailor would say, and went on deck. The day was UNDER WEIGH. 3 beginning to dawn, and there were already little groups of men scattered about the decks ; they had been on deck all night, and most of them had not been below since they came on board. They stood there talking and looking over the vessel's side, and watching the land now sinking out of sight; the greater number of them were looking on it for the last time, for of all the men who landed in Cuba on that expedition, only seven, to my knowledge, left it.

A good many of them had left comfortable homes, or had given up a useful calling or profession, and bright prospects, to become volunteer soldiers and see the world. The ship we were embarked in was a clipper built barque-rigged vessel, with auxiliary steam power, that was only to be used in cases of necessity ; there was no funnel to be seen on her deck or any thing to indicate that she was a steam vessel, for the opening was covered over, and the funnel itself was stowed away below, but it could be got up and placed in position when necessary at any time. Before sunrise the crew began to wash the decks, and we were invited to assist, and willingly did so, and soon had everything clean and tidy on deck. Some more of our men now began to make their appearance from below, looking very sick and woe begone after their first night at sea, and when all of b them had come up we were mustered and divided into messes of ten men each by the officers of the ship.

We had not yet seen our own officers ; probably they were like some of the men, sea-sick on their first night out. There were a few Cubans on the quarter deck in the early part of the morning, for like most natives of tropical countries, they were early risers, but they disappeared below as soon as we began to wash the decks. With the wind on the quarter, a fair wind, orders were given to rig out stunsail booms and get stunsails ready for setting, and some of our men, to show their willingness to assist in everything, ran up the rigging with the crew, and helped them to rig out the booms and set the sails; and before eight bells, the breakfast hour, the ship was under every stitch of canvas it was possible to crowd on her ; but this did not last long, for at midday the wind having drawn abeam and freshened, the yards had to be braced up a little, and the lower stunsails taken in.

An hour later in came topgallant and topmast stunsails, and another pull had to be taken on the lee braces, but all the staysails were now set ; this was evidently the ship's best sailing trim, for she seemed to fly through the water, every sail full and rounded, every thread and ropeyarn pulling its utmost, and dragging the beautifully modelled hull through the comparatively smooth water at a twelve-knot pace OUR COLONEL ADDRESSES US. 5 After dinner, or the midday meal, we were all called on deck, where we found our officers already assembled. One of them, a tall, soldierly-looking man, Colonel Ridley, our commander, addressed us, and described the nature and climate of the country to which we were going, the object of the expedition, the difficulties we would have to contend against, the character of the enemy we had to meet, and impressed on us the urgent necessity of strict discipline, and obedience to our officers, for without it, he said, we should only be a rabble, a danger and an encumbrance to our friends, and despicable in the eyes of our enemies.

We were, he said, part of a larger force, the vanguard ; the main body would soon follow, and be well supplied with munitions and all necessaries for carrying on a successful campaign ; there was neither time nor opportunity for giving us the drill and instruction necessary to enable us to meet on equal terms the regular troops of Spain, but he had great faith in our pluck and enthusiasm in a good cause. He had, he said, led men as young and aa raw as we were in the Mexican War, and led them to victory, and he hoped to do the same with us ; he told us that there was a large Creole army already in the field, that we would bo received with open arms by the people we were going to fight for, and should our efforts be successful, as he hoped they would be, what a brilliant future was before us ! — the certainty of obtaining substantial rewards, and good positions in the army and navy of the new republic.

We were divided into three watches, one of which was always to be on deck to assist the crew in working the ship, and to be exercised and instructed in the use of their arms. As the afternoon wore on, the wind increased steadily, and sail after sail had to be taken in, and as the wind drew ahead at the same time that it increased in violence, the yards were braced sharp up, until at sundown the ship was close-hauled, under double-reefed topsails, and plunging into a nasty head sea. I happened to be on the lee side of the deck when she made one of her plunges, taking in a great deal of water over her bows, and along the lee side, and I was surprised to feel it warm as it ran over my feet ; its temperature must have been several degrees higher than the air, and was probably caused by the Florida Gulf Stream, although not twenty hours from New York.

I had read of the Gulf Stream running along the coast of Florida for a short distance, and when it cleared the Bahama reefs and shoals, trending away to the eastward, and of a cold Arctic current running along the east coast of North America ; but if that was the case, the cold current must be very narrow, and run close in-shore, and the warm Florida current must run much further north than was thought, or OUR FIRST DAY AT SEA. 7 how account for the warm water we were sailing through ? A good many of the men who had joined the expedition were young sailors who were out of employment, and joined simply as they would join, or ship, in a vessel for a cruise or the voyage ; they were, of course, quite at home on board ship, and they subsequently proved the best men in the expedition, but there were a great many on board who were now at sea for the first time in their lives, and they were miserably sea-sick.

Thus passed our first day at sea. Twice during the night the hands were turned out to shorten sail, as the wind increased, and at sunrise it was blowing a howling gale ; the ship was hove to, under a close-reefed main-topsail and fore-topmast staysail, and a heavy head sea was running. This was the kind of weather to take some of the enthusiasm out of our recruits ; those among them who were not helplessly sea-sick, were squeamish and listless, unable to move about and indifferent as to what became of them ; some were wishing that they had never left home, while the sailors endeavoured to comfort them by telling them that they would forget it all as soon as we got into fine weather, and not a few, the hardened ones, laughed at their misery. The gale continued all day and the following night, but by daylight it had moderated a little and hauled aft, so that it was a fair wind for us once more, and at sunrise the ship was got before it, with the foresail reefed and set, and away we went once more like a racehorse, tearing through the water on our course.

To-day, we had our first misfortune. It was between half-past eleven and twelve in the forenoon, one watch was already at dinner, when an order was given to shake a reef out of the fore-topsail ; there was a heavy sea running, and the captain of the vessel was afraid it might break over our quarter, and. wished to get more way on the ship to keep her ahead of the seas, and avoid being pooped. Two men jumped aloft to obey the order, and had already let go the reef-points and earings, and were on their way down, when one of them — it is supposed, for no one was looking at him at the time — slipped, or missed his footing on the foot-rope, or Flemish hawse, in coming in, and fell from the yard-arm into the sea. The man at the wheel shouted, " A man over board," and lifting a life-buoy that hung near the binnacle, he threw it into the sea after him ; every one on deck ran to the side to see him come up astern, and some of us ran up the rigging to watch him.

The poor fellow struck out, for he could swim well, but in a few minutes he was out of sight Estern, although his voice still reached us, calling on A MAN OVERBOARD. 9 us not to forsake him; but there was such a sea running at the time that it would endanger the ship and all on board to attempt to bring her to the wind, so the poor fellow was left to his fate. I cannot explain my feelings at the time, when I saw no attempt made to save him. I felt dazed ; surely, I thought, they are not going to leave him to drown without making some effort to save him ? I had gone up the main rigging, when the alarm was given, with some of the men, and was just under the top, and holding on to the futtock shrouds, and looking astern at the poor struggling lad, as he appeared on the crest of every sea ; an old sailor, one of the crew, was beside me, when I turned to him and asked, " Why don't the captain give some order — can nothing be done to save that man ?

Is there no possibility of saving him ? " The sailor shook his head. " Have you ever seen a case like it ? " I asked. " Yes," said he, " I have seen several — there is no chance for him ; it would have been better for him if he could not swim, as his sufferings would be sooner over. If the skipper attempted to bring the ship to the wind in this gale, and with this sea running, she'd sweep her decks, and would most likely be thrown on her beam-ends ; " and he turned and went down the rigging, saying, "It's no use looking; come on to dinner, they are going to strike eight bells." All through that afternoon, some of our comrades were fancying that they could hear the voice of the lost man astern, borne on the gale to the ship ; once 1 thought I heard him myself, but he must have been several miles astern then, and the moaning of the wind through the rigging, the creaking of blocks and ropes, the noises made by the seas as they broke under our stern, and the strange and weird sounds familiar to the sailor, in a gale of wind, in a sailing ship at sea, were construed by them into resem blances of the human voice.

The lost man was not one of the ship's crew, but one of our volunteers, who ran aloft when the order was given, but he had been at sea before ; only that morning I had been talking to him about his home and friends ; he was an English lad, a native of Liver pool, where he told me his mother and sister kept a shop. He had been an apprentice on board a Liverpool ship, and had run away in New York, and made a voyage in an American coaster before joining this ex pedition ; he was only a year or two older than myself, and like me, he had not a single acquaintance on board the ship. There was not much noise at dinner that day, the loss of this youth taken so suddenly from amongst us acted as a damper on every one's spirits ; but before sundown, as the wind abated, and more reefs had to A MISCELLANEOUS ASSORTMENT. 11 be shaken out to keep the ship ahead of the sea, every one seemed to forget the accident, and when the watch was set at eight bells at night, the ship was once more under all plain sail, and making ten knots an hour on her course.

Such is life and death at sea; with a fair wind and fine weather, sailors soon forget their misfortunes. It is customary when a man dies, or is lost at sea, for the captain of the ship to auction off his effects the following day for the benefit of his relations, but in this case it was not done — why, I cannot say. Perhaps the drowned man had none, or if he had, they were probably appropriated by some of the men, for there were men in our little army on board that ship from all classes of society; the off-scourings of civilisation, men from whom I shrank with loathing, whose conversation was nauseating and loathsome in the extreme. There were thieves and jail-birds amongst them ; there were also ex-officers of the British Army and Navy, whose misconduct or mis fortune drove them there ; young men who had been educated for the Church and the Bir; youths fresh from school, and men of several callings, with a sprinkling of old soldiers.

Chapter II

Barney— His story— Blackbird catching— The " Isle of Pines " -The slaver's hidden money — Tarns. There was a man with us who went by the name of Barney, a native of Troy, in the state of New York. Barney was a sailor by profession, and al though still a young man, had seen a good deal of the world, as sailors see it ; he was a bold, daring fellow, and often spoke to me of his voyages and adventures in various parts of the world ; he was unscrupulous,, and would hesitate at nothing to accomplish his ends, and yet he was not without a certain rough generosity and sense of fair play ; he was a good fellow to have for a friend, for he would share his scanty clothing, or his last dollar, or risk his life and think nothing of it, to help a shipmate of only a few days' acquaintance ship, if he took a liking to him, but he was an im placable enemy.

He appeared to take a liking to me from the first day he spoke to me on board the Dar thula, and obliged and assisted me in many ways. I CATCH A PORPOISE. 13 He was a good sailor, and taught me many things that proved of service to me in after life ; he was what the men called a good yarner, and must have had a great deal of experience, or a fertile imagination, for many a night in our watch on deck on the outward passage, did a crowd of youths like myself gather round him under the lee of the long-boat, and press him to spin us a yarn, and he rarely disappointed us. For my part I must say that I listened eagerly to his stories, and was amused aud interested in them, although many of them were not of a character to improve the morals or elevate the tastes of a young man. One fine day on the voyage out, I had distinguished myself by harpooning a porpoise.

I was out standing on the martingale back-ropes and supporting myself by leaning against the martingale, or dolphin striker, as it is sometimes called, just under the end of the bowsprit, with the harpoon grasped with both hands, and watching for an opportunity to throw it whenever a fish passed underneath, as the ship rose and fell with the sea, and ploughed her way through the water ; at last a porpoise darted past underneath me, and I threw the harpoon with all my force, and with good aim, for I had the good fortune to strike my fish. The line that was fast to the harpoon led up to and through a tail-block fastened at the]bowsprit end, and so in onto the forecastle, aud although the men on deck promptly hauled in the line, as soon as they saw that the fish was fairly struck, and soon had him dangling in the air, still he would probably have wriggled off the harpoon and made his escape, if Barney had not run out along the back-ropes with a spare line and cleverly slipped a running bowline over his tail and secured him.

It was while out here, hanging over the sea, after the fish had been sent in on deck, and with our feet almost touching the water, as the ship rose and fell, while we waited for a chance to strike another fish, that Barney told me the following story. He had been laid up with yellow fever in a hospital at New Orleans, many years ago when he was a boy; the beds in the hospital were so close together that there was barely room for a person to pass between them. One morning the occupant of one of the beds next him was found dead, and was carried out, but before night the bed was occupied by another patient, an old sailor. Barney, who was convalescent, soon discovered that his neighbour could speak several languages, for he spoke in French to the doctors, in English to Barney, and in his ravings he sometimes spoke in Spanish or Portuguese; in his lucid moments he "spun many a yarn" to Barney of his voyages, and about " blackbird catching."

Here Barney explained to me that blackbird catching meant slaving. The old sailor said that he had spent twenty years BLACKBIRD CATCHING. 15 of his life in the slave trade, and had been part owner of schooners in that trade at one time, and had made several successful trips, but that very often, after running a cargo, they had to destroy the vessel, but even then they always made money ; the slaves were landed either in Cuba or Brazil. He had run two cargoes to the Brazilian coast, and after landing the mokes, as he called the slaves, he was obliged to burn the vessel. The last run that he made was in a vessel built by himself, with the assistance of a few men ; they built a schooner of a hundred and twenty tons, out of green timber cut in the woods by them selves. She was sparred and rigged with materials procured from two old wrecks on the coast ; even the bolts and fastenings were obtained from the same source, and fashioned by themselves to the shape aud size required.

She was caulked to the water-line with oakum made from some old rigging, and above that with a fibrous plant found near the Cuban creeks ; canvas was the only material that they had to buy, and they cut and made the sails themselves. The running rigging was made from green cow-hide, and the little vessel was built, launched, manned, equipped, and sailed from a lone and unfrequented part of the coast of Cuba for the African coast, where she took in a load of slaves, and despite the cruisers of various European nations, made the run safely across the Atlantic and landed them in Brazil; but she was chased on the Brazilian coast, and had to be run ashore and set on fire to avoid capture. The crew compelled the slaves to jump overboard and swim ashore; the old man, who was captain of the schooner, was detained by the Brazilian authorities for over six months, and at last, when set at liberty, he discovered that his officers and crew, who he admitted were his partners and part-owners of the vessel, had dis appeared with the proceeds of the sale of the slaves, and left him without means of any kind.

He was so reduced that he was obliged to beg on the streets of Rio Janeiro ; for as he was old no one cared to employ him, and he only understood such work as sailors are employed at, and his ragged and brokendown appearance was against him ; he could not get employment, and was glad to accept a milreis or an odd dollar now and again from sailors he met on shore on liberty ; he never asked or obtained assis tance from any one but sailors, men of his own calling. He had been living this wretched, miserable life in Rio for months, when at last he fell in with a man who had been a shipmate of his years before, and through him he got a chance to work his way on board a vessel to New Orleans, from which port he hoped to make his way to Cuba; but he had not been many days there before he was stricken with yellow fever and brought to the hospital, where he A YARN. 17 then lay, without a cent in his pocket or a coat on his back, and " Here I am," said he, " dying a pauper, whereas if I were only in a spot I know well in the island of Cuba, I would be worth thousands of dollars to-day."