resolved that no more night swims in the sea should find
place in my programme.

I made my way with difficulty through the tangled woods, but had gone
nearly a mile before I came to the road. After a cautious survey from my
shelter, I stepped out on it, and looking away to the west I saw
cultivated hills with teams and people moving about; I also saw the road
became two--the right-hand one led away from the coast into the hills,
the one to the left continued to skirt the beach. Both roads were well
traveled, and I knew I was near the tobacco belt, which is cultivated
throughout its entire length, from the Gulf to the Caribbean Sea, for a
breadth of twenty miles, its western border touching the province of
Pinar del Rio. Forty miles beyond that border the rebels held the town
of San Cristoval, but I had made up my mind to follow the coast until I
reached the hamlet and harbor of Rio de San Diego, fifty miles south
from San Cristoval, then to strike north to the town of Passos, twenty
miles west of San Cristoval. Once past San Diego, I would be well within
the rebel lines, and could safely show myself, although I determined not
to do so voluntarily until I was at Passos.

The roundabout way I was traveling doubled the distance, but, aside from
getting outside the lines of the Spanish patrols, I was in no particular
hurry, and my mode of life was hardening and fitting me for the service
in which I was to embark. I counted upon taking ten days, or rather
nights, to reach San Diego, and five from there to Passos, where I would
make myself known to the rebel chiefs as an American volunteer in the
cause of Cuban liberty. And, I thought, what a change of scene for Mr.
F. A. Warren. From the Bank of England to a volunteer in a rebel camp in
Cuba!

[Illustration: MILITARY SUPPRESSING REVOLT OF CONVICTS AT CHATHAM.]

I crossed the road and entered the jungle to pass the day, but as the
ground was dry the trees and vines were not so closely matted, making it
easier to move about, and a far more agreeable place it was for a
daylight picnic than the jungle where I had passed the day before.
But no crabs showed themselves, and as there was no animal life to be
found, there was nothing but my piece of dried beef to be had "to go
into the interior," so I dined off that; then, lighting one of my
precious cigars, lay down in a sort of fairy bower to enjoy myself, and
succeeded. During the entire day no sight or sound of human form or