o show how we treated prisoners, and a companion one
of the captain of the Compeliton, who came over with us on the Dolphin,
and who showed us the marks of the ropes on his wrists and arms the
Spaniards had bound him with when he was in Cabanas for nine months.
The orderly messed with the bluejackets, who treated him in the most
hospitable manner. He was a poor little peasant boy, half starved and
hollow-eyed, and so scared that he could hardly stand, but they took
great pride in the fact that they had made him eat three times of
everything. They are, without prejudice, the finest body of men and
boys you would care to see, and as humorous and polite and keen as any
class of men I ever met.

The war could be ended in a month so far as the island of Cuba is
concerned, if the troops were ready and brought over here. The coast
to Havana for ten miles is broad enough for them to march along it, and
the heights above could be covered the entire time by the fleet, so
that it would be absolutely impossible for any force to withstand the
awful hailstorm they would play on it. Transports carrying the
provisions would be protected by the ships on the gulf side, and the
guns at Morro could be shut up in twenty-four hours. This is not a
dream, but the most obvious and feasible plan, and it is a disgrace if
the Washington politicians delay. As to health, this is the healthiest
part of the coast. The trade winds blow every day of the year, and the
fever talk is all nonsense. The army certainly has delayed most
scandalously in mobilizing. This talk of waiting a month is suicide.
It is a terrible expense. It keeps the people on a strain, destroys
business, and the health of the troops at Tampa is, to my mind, in much
greater danger than it would be on the hills around Havana, where, as
Scovel says, there is as much yellow fever as there is snow. Tell Dad
to urge them to act promptly. In the meanwhile I am having a
magnificent time. I am burned and hungry and losing about a ton of fat
a day, and I sleep finely. The other night the Porter held us up, but
it was a story that never got into the papers. I haven't missed a
trick so far except not getting on the flagship from the first, but
that does not count now since I am on board.

I haven't written anything yet, but I am going to begin soon. I expect
to make myself rich on this campaign. I get ten cents a word from
Scribner's for everything I send them, if it is only a