The Story of the Philippines Part 40

"La Bateria Nueva de la Estrella" is mounted with four revolving cannons.

The fortifications of Havana were carefully covered in the military notes, and thus enumerated:

There are fifteen fortifications in and about the city of Havana, more or less armed and garrisoned, besides a work partly constructed and not armed, called Las Animas, and the old bastions along the sea wall of the harbor. These works are as follows:

Nos. 1 and 2 are earthen redans on the sea coast, east of Havana.

Velazo Battery, just east of, and a part of, El Morro.

El Morro, a sea coast fort, with flanking barbette batteries, east of harbor entrance.

The Twelve Apostles, a water battery lying at the foot of Morro, with a field of fire across the harbor's mouth. It is a part of Morro.

La Cabana, a stone-bastioned work with both land and water front, in rear of El Morro, and directly opposite the city of Havana.

San Diego, a stone-bastioned work with only land fronts, east of Cabana.

Atares, a stone-bastioned work on hill at southwestern extremity of Havana Bay, near the old s.h.i.+pyard called the a.r.s.enal.

San Salvador de la Punta, a stone-bastioned work west of harbor entrance, with small advanced and detached work, built on a rock near harbor mouth.

La Reina, a stone work, in shape the segment of a circle, placed on the seacoast, at western limits of city, on an inlet called San Lazardo.

Santa Clara, a small but powerful seacoast battery of stone and earth, placed about 1 1/2 miles west of harbor.

El Principe, a stone-bastioned redoubt west of Havana.

Nos. 3 A, 3 B, and 4 are earthen redans on the seacoast west of Havana.

There are, in addition, several works built for defense, but now used for other purposes or abandoned. These are:

The Torreon de Vigia, a martello tower placed on the inlet of San Lazaro opposite La Reina.

The old fort called La Fuerza, built three hundred and fifty years ago, near the present Plaza de Armas, and now used for barracks and public offices.

The work called San Nazario, situated north of El Principe, but now used in connection with the present cartridge factory, abandoned for defensive purposes.

The partially constructed fort called Las Animas, southeast of Principe, lying on a low hill, partly built but useless and unarmed.

The old sea wall extending from near La Punta to the Plaza de Armas, unarmed, and useless except as a parapet for musketry.

The old a.r.s.enal, on the west of the inner bay, now used as repair works for s.h.i.+ps, useless for defense.

The old artillery and engineer storehouses near La Punta, probably once used as strongholds, now mere storehouses for munitions of war.

There are, besides, in the vicinity of Havana, three old and now useless stone works--one at Chorrera, the mouth of the Almendarez River, about 4 miles from Havana harbor; another at Cojimar, on the coast, about 3 miles eastward of Cabana, and the third at the inlet called La Playa de Mariano, about 7 miles west of Havana.

Batteries Nos. 1 and 2 were equipped with, No. 1, four Hontoria 6-inch guns; two Nordenfeldt 6-pounders; No. 2, two Krupp 12-inch guns; four Hontoria 3-inch mortars. The 12-inch Krupps were to stand off battles.h.i.+ps attempting to force the harbor, or to bombard the Morro. The Valago battery, a part of the Morro, an out-work on the edge of the cliff, mounting four 11-inch Krupp guns separated by earth traverses.

The Morro, commenced in 1589 and finished in 1597, is important for historical a.s.sociations. It is a most picturesque structure, and is useful as a lighthouse and prison, and is mounted with twelve old 10-inch, eight old 8-inch, and fourteen old 4-inch guns.

Cabana, finished in 1774 at a cost of $14,000,000, lies some 500 yards southeast of El Morro, on the east side of Havana Bay. Toward the city it exposes a vertical stone wall of irregular trace, with salients at intervals. Toward the Morro is a bastioned face protected by a deep ditch, sally port, and drawbridge. Eastward and southward a beautifully constructed land front incloses the work. This front is protected by ditches 40 or more feet deep, well constructed glacis, stone scarp, and counterscarp. Cabana is a magnificent example of the permanent fortifications constructed a century ago. Probably 10,000 men could be quartered in it.

The entrance to Cabana is by the sally port that opens upon the bridge across the moat lying between Cabana and El Morro. Upon entering, the enormous extent of the work begins to be perceived, parapet within parapet, galleries, casemates, and terrepleins almost innumerable, all of stone and useless. There are no earth covers or traverses, and no protection against modern artillery.

Cabana is the prison for offenders against the State, and the scene of innumerable executions. From an exterior or salient corner of the secretary's office of the headquarters there leads a subterranean pa.s.sage 326 meters long, 2.5 meters wide, and 1.86 high, excavated in the rock. It conducts to the sea, debouching at the mouth of a sewer, 87 meters from the Morro wharf. At exactly 132 meters along the road rising from the Morro pier or wharf to the Cabana, there will be found by excavating the rock on the left of the road, at a depth of 3 meters, a grating, on opening which pa.s.sage will be made into a road 107 meters long, 1.6 high, and 1.42 wide, leading to the same exit as the Cabana secret way. These pa.s.sages are most secret, as all believe that the grating of the sewer, seen from the sea, is a drain.

The battery of Santa Clara is the most interesting of the fortifications of Havana, and one of the most important. It lies about 100 yards from the sh.o.r.e of the gulf, at a point where the line of hills to the westward runs back (either naturally or artificially) into quarries, thus occupying a low salient backed by a hill. Here are three new Krupp 11-inch guns, designed to protect El Principe, the land side of Havana. It is 187 feet above sea level and completely dominates Havana, the bay, Morro, Cabana, the coast northward, Atares, and from east around to south, the approaches of the Marianao Road, Cristina, and the Western Railroad for about 3 kilometers, i.e., between Cristina and a cut at that distance from the station. Principe gives fire upon Tulipan, the Cerro, the Hill of the Jesuits, and the valley through which pa.s.ses the Havana Railroad, sweeping completely with its guns the railroad as far as the cut at Cienaga, 2-1/2 to 3 miles away. It dominates also the hills southward and westward toward Puentes Grandes and the Almendarez River, and country extending toward Marianao, also the Calzada leading to the cemetery and toward Chorrera; thence the entire sea line (the railroad to Chorrera is partly sheltered by the slope leading to Principe. This is by all means the strongest position about Havana which is occupied. Lying between it and the hill of the Cerro is the hill of the Catalan Club, right under the guns of the work and about one-half mile away. The Marianao Road is more sheltered than the Havana, as it runs near the trees and hill near the Cerro. The only points which dominate the hill of the Principe lie to the south and southeast in the direction of Jesus del Monte and beyond Regla. On its southern, southeastern, and southwestern faces the hill of Principe is a steep descent to the calzada and streets below. The slope is gradual westward and around by the north. From this hill is one of the best views of Havana and the valley south. El Principe lies about one-half mile from the north coast, from which hills rise in gradual slopes toward the work. It is Havana gossip that El Principe is always held by the Spanish regiment in which the Captain-General has most confidence. The military notes p.r.o.nounce El Principe undoubtedly the strongest natural position about Havana now occupied by defensive works. Its guns sweep the heights of the Almendares, extending from the north coast southward by the hills of Puentes Grandes to the valley of Cienaga, thence eastward across the Hill of the Jesuits and the long line of trees and houses leading to the Cerro. The country beyond the Cerro is partly sheltered by trees and hills, but eastward El Principe commands in places the country and the bay sh.o.r.e, and gives fire across Havana seaward.

The most vulnerable spot in the defenses of Havana is the aqueduct of Isabella II, or the Vento. The water is from the Vento Springs, pure and inexhaustable, nine miles out of Havana.

All three of the water supplies to Havana, the Zanja and the two aqueducts of Ferdinand VII and of the Vento, proceed from the Almendares and run their course near to each other, the farthest to the west being the Zanja and to the east the Vento.

At Vento Springs is constructed a large stone basin, open at the bottom, through which springs bubble. From this reservoir the new aqueduct leads. It is an elliptical tunnel of brick, placed under ground, and marked by turrets of brick and stone placed along its course.

From the Vento Reservoir the new aqueduct crosses the low valley south of Havana, following generally the Calzada de Vento, which becomes, near the Cerro, the Calzada de Palatino, to a point on the Western Railway marked 5 kilometers (about); hence the calzada and the aqueduct closely follow the railway for about a mile, terminating at a new reservoir.

The Vento water is the best thing Havana has, and indispensable. The old sources of supply are intolerable. The main water supply is the Zanja. Throughout the most of its course this river flows through unprotected mud banks; the fluids of many houses, especially in the Cerro ward which it skirts, drain into them; men, horses, and dogs bathe in it; dead bodies have been seen floating in it, and in the rainy season the water becomes very muddy. In fine, the Zanja in its course receives all which a little brook traversing a village and having houses and back yards on its banks would receive. The water can not be pure, and to those who know the facts the idea of drinking it is repulsive. This supply had long been insufficient to the growing city, and in 1835 the well-protected and excellent aqueduct of Ferdinand VII was completed. It taps the Almendares River a few hundred yards above filters mentioned, hence carried by arches to the east El Cerro, and for some distance nearly parallel to the Calzada del Cerro, but finally intersecting this. These works are succeeded by the Famous Vento. When Havana is fought for hereafter the fight will be at the Vento Springs. This remark is not made in the military notes, but the military men know it well. When General Miles expected to attack Havana he procured all the accessible surveys and detail of information, official and through special observation and personal knowledge obtainable of the water works. Life could not be sustained many days in the city of Havana without the water of the adorable Vento.

A special interest attaches to Havana, as it is to be a city under the control of the United States. The surface soil consists for the most part of a thin layer of red, yellow, or black earths. At varying depths beneath this, often not exceeding 1 or 2 feet, lie the solid rocks. These foundation rocks are, especially in the northern and more modern parts of the city toward the coast of the sea and not of the harbor, Quarternary, and especially Tertiary, formations, so permeable that liquids emptied into excavations are absorbed and disappear.

In other parts of the city the rocks are not permeable, and pools are formed. In proportion as the towns of Cuba are old, the streets are narrow. In Havana this peculiarity is so positive that pedestrians cannot pa.s.s on the sidewalks, nor vehicles on the streets. Less than one-third of the population live on paved streets, and these are as well paved and kept as clean, it is believed cleaner, than is usual in the United States. The remainder live on unpaved streets, which, for the most part, are very filthy. Many of these, even in old and densely populated parts of the city, are no better than rough country roads, full of rocks, crevices, mud holes, and other irregularities, so that vehicles traverse them with difficulty at all times, and in the rainy season they are sometimes impa.s.sible for two months. Rough, muddy, or both, these streets serve admirably as permanent receptacles for much decomposing animal and vegetable matter. Finally, not less, probably more, than one-half the population of Havana live on streets which are constantly in an extremely insanitary condition, but these streets, though so numerous, are not in the beaten track of the pleasure tourist.

In the old intramural city, in which live about 40,000 people, the streets vary in width, but generally they are 6.8 meters (about 22 feet) wide, of which the sidewalks occupy about 7.5 feet. In many streets the sidewalk at each side is not even 18 inches wide. In the new, extramural town, the streets are generally 10 meters (32.8 feet) wide, with 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) for the sidewalks, and 7 meters (23 feet) for the wagonway. There are few sidewalks in any except in the first four of the nine city districts.

More than two-thirds of the population live in densely inhabited portions of the city, where the houses are crowded in contact with each other. The average house lot does not exceed 27 by 112 feet in size. There are 17,259 houses, of which 15,494 are one-story, 1,552 are two stories, 186 are three stories, and only 27 are four stories, with none higher. At least 12 in every 13 inhabitants live in one-story houses; and as the total civil, military, and transient population exceeds 200,000 there are more than 12 inhabitants to every house. Tenement houses may have many small rooms, but each room is occupied by a family. Generally the one-story houses have four or five rooms; but house rent, as also food and clothing, is rendered so expensive by taxation, by export as well as import duties, that it is rare for workmen, even when paid $50 to $100 a month, to enjoy the exclusive use of one of these mean little houses; reserving one or two rooms for his family, he rents the balance. This condition of affairs is readily understood when it is known that so great a necessity as flour cost in Havana $15.50 when its price in the United States was $6.50 per barrel.

In the densely populated portions of the city the houses generally have no back yard, properly so called, but a flagged court, or narrow vacant s.p.a.ce into which sleeping rooms open at the side, and in close proximity with these, at the rear of this contracted court are located the kitchen, the privy, and often a stall for animals. In the houses of the poor, that is, of the vast majority of the population, there are no storerooms, pantries, closets, or other conveniences for household supplies. These are furnished from day to day, even from meal to meal, by the corner groceries; and it is rare, in large sections of Havana, to find any one of the four corners of a square without a grocery.

The walls of most of the houses in Havana are built of "mamposteria"

or rubble masonry, a porous material which freely absorbs atmospheric as well as ground moisture. The mark of this can often be seen high on the walls, which varies from 2 to 7 feet in the houses generally. The roofs are excellent, usually flat, and constructed of brick tiles. The windows are, like the doors, unusually high, nearly reaching the ceiling, which, in the best houses only, is also unusually high. The windows are never glazed, but protected by strong iron bars on the outside and on the inside by solid wooden shutters, which are secured, like the doors, with heavy bars or bolts, and in inclement weather greatly interfere with proper ventilation. Fireplaces with chimneys are extremely rare, so that ventilation depends entirely on the doors and windows, which, it should be stated, are by no means unusually large in most of the sleeping rooms of the poor. Generally in Havana, less generally in other cities, the entrances and courtyards are flagged with stone, while the rooms are usually floored with tile or marble. With rare exceptions the lowest floor is in contact with the earth. Ventilation between the earth and floor is rarely seen in Cuba. In Havana the average height of the ground floor is from 7 to 11 inches above the pavement, but in Havana, and more frequently in other Cuban towns, one often encounters houses which are entered by stepping down from the sidewalk, and some floors are even below the level of the street. In Havana some of the floors, in Matanzas more, in Cardenas and Cienfuegos many are of the bare earth itself, or of planks raised only a few inches above the damp ground.

The narrow entrance about 400 yards in width and 1,200 in length, opens into the irregular harbor, which has three chief coves or indentations, termed "ensenadas." The extreme length of the harbor from its sea entrance to the limit of the most distant ensenada is 3 miles, and its extreme breadth 1-1/2 miles; but within the entrance the average length is only about 1, and the average breadth about two-thirds of a mile. However, because of the irregularly projecting points of land which form the ensenadas, there is no locality in the harbor where a vessel can possibly anchor farther than 500 yards from the sh.o.r.e. Its greatest depth is about 40 feet, but the anchorage ground for vessels drawing 18 feet of water is very contracted, not exceeding one-half the size of the harbor. The rise and fall of the tide does not exceed 2 feet.

The Cuban city next in celebrity to Havana is Matanzas, and it is one likely to become a favorite of Americans, as the country in the vicinity is distinguished by beauty as well as remarkable for fertility. Matanzas was first regularly settled in 1693. It is in the province of Matanzas, 54 miles west of Havana, by the most direct of the two railroads which unite these two cities, and is situated on the western inland extremity of the bay of Matanzas, a harbor of the first cla.s.s. Matanzas is divided into three districts, viz, the central district of Matanzas, which, about half a mile in width across the center of population, lies between the two little rivers, San Juan to the south, and the Yumuri to the north; the Pueblo Nuevo district, south of the San Juan, and around the inland extremity of the harbor; and the district of Versalles, north of the Yumuri, nearest to the open sea, as also to the anchorage ground, and, sanitarily, the best situated district in the city. About two-thirds of the population are in the district of Matanzas, and the Pueblo Nuevo district has about double the population of Versalles. Pueblo Nuevo stands on ground originally a swamp, and is low, flat, and only 3 or 4 feet above the sea. The Matanzas district has many houses on equally low ground, on the harbor front, and on the banks of the two rivers which inclose this district; but from the front and between these rivers the ground ascends, so that its houses are from 2 to even 100 feet above the sea; however, the center of population, the public square, is only about 20 feet above sea level. Versalles is on a bluff of the harbor, and its houses are situated, for the most part, from 15 to 40 feet above the sea. The district of Matanzas has ill constructed and useless sewers in only two streets, and no houses connected therewith. So much of this district and of Versalles as is built on the hill slope is naturally well drained, but the Pueblo Nuevo district, and those parts of Matanzas built in immediate proximity to the banks of the river, are very ill drained.

Since 1872 Matanzas has had an aqueduct from the Bello spring, 7 miles distant. The supply is alleged to be both abundant and excellent. But of the 4,710 houses in the city 840 stand on the hills outside the zone supplied by the waterworks, while of the remaining 3,870 houses within this zone only about 2,000 get their water from the waterworks company. Hence more than half of the houses of Matanzas (2,710) do for the most part get their supply in kegs by purchase in the streets. There are a few public fountains, as also some dangerous wells. The streets are 30 feet wide, with 24 feet wagon way. Few of them are paved, some are very poor roads, but, for the most part, these roads are in good condition. In the Matanzas district some of the streets are of solid stone, and natural foundation rock of the place, for the superficial soil is so thin that the foundation rocks often crop out. Of this very porous rock most of the houses are built. The houses have wider fronts, larger air s.p.a.ces in rear, are not so crowded, and are better ventilated than the houses of Havana. As is usual in Cuba, the ground floors are generally on a level with the sidewalk, and some are even below the level of the streets. A heavy rain floods many of the streets of Matanzas, the water running back into and beneath the houses. The porous limestone of which the houses are built greatly favors absorption.

The population of Matanzas and suburbs was about 50,000 at the beginning of the war.

Porto Rico is not quite as large as Connecticut, but larger than the States of Delaware and Rhode Island. The climate of the island is delightful, and its soil exceedingly rich. In natural resources it is of surpa.s.sing opulence. The length of the island is about one hundred miles, and its breadth thirty-five, the general figure of it being like the head of a sperm whale. The range of mountains is from east to west, and nearly central. The prevalent winds are from the northwest, and the rainfall is much heavier on the northern sh.o.r.es and mountain slopes than on the southern. The height of the ridge is on the average close to 1,500 feet, one bold peak, the Anvil being 3,600 feet high. The rainy north and the droughty south, with the lift of the land from the low sh.o.r.es to the central slopes and rugged elevations, under the tropical sun, with the influence of the great oceans east, south and north, and the mult.i.tude of western and southern islands, give unusual and charming variety in temperature. Porto Rico is, by the American people, even more than the Spaniards, a.s.sociated with Cuba. But it is less than a tenth of Cuban proportions. Porto Rico has 3,600 square miles to Cuba's 42,000, but a much greater proportion of Porto Rico than of Cuba is cultivated. Less than one-sixteenth of the area of Cuba has been improved, and while her population is but 1,600,000, according to the latest census, and is not so much now, Porto Rico, with less than a tenth of the land of Cuba, has half the number of inhabitants. Largely Porto Rico is peopled by a better cla.s.s than the ma.s.s of the Cubans. Cuba is wretchedly provided with roads, one of the reasons why the Spaniards were incapable of putting down insurrections. If they had expended a fair proportion of the revenues derived from the flouris.h.i.+ng plantations and the monopolies of Spanish favoritisms that built up Barcelona and enriched Captain-Generals, and in less degree other public servants, the rebellions would have been put down. The Spanish armies in Cuba, however, were rather managed for official speculation and peculation, were more promenaders than in military enterprise and the stern business of war. With Weyler for an opponent, Gomez, as a guerilla, could have dragged on a series of skirmishes indefinitely. The story of the alleged war in Cuba between the Spaniards and the Cubans was on both sides falsified, and the American people deceived. Porto Rico does not seem to have appealed so strongly to the cupidity of the Spaniards as Cuba did, and to have been governed with less brutality. The consequence is there has not been a serious insurrection in the smaller island for seventy years, and it falls into our possession without the impoverishment and demoralization of the devastation of war--one of the fairest gems of the ocean.

It was October 18th that the American flag was raised over San Juan. The following dispatch is the official record:

"San Juan, Porto Rico, Oct. 18.--Secretary of War, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.: Flags have been raised on public buildings and forts in this city and saluted with national salutes. The occupation of the island is now complete.

"_Brooke_, Chairman."

On the morning of the 18th, the 11th regular infantry with two batteries of the 5th artillery landed. The latter proceeded to the forts, while the infantry lined up on the docks. It was a holiday for San Juan and there were many people in the streets. Rear-Admiral Schley and General Gordon, accompanied by their staffs, proceeded to the palace in carriages. The 11th infantry regiment and band with Troop H, of the 6th United States cavalry then marched through the streets and formed in the square opposite the palace.