was most
unfortunately accomplished, but then only through treachery.

In emulation of his predecessor, Weyler also tried his hand at trocha
building. He constructed a fence of this description across Cuba between
the port of Artemisa and the bay of Majana, about twenty-five miles from
Havana.

It may be of interest to describe this particular trocha, as it was one
of, if not the most important, and a good example of the others.

As its name, trocha, signifies, it was a ditch, or rather two ditches,
some three yards wide and the same in depth, with a road between them
broad enough to allow cavalry to pass. On each bank was a barbed wire
fence, to stop the assailants' progress. Beyond the two ditches, were
trous-de-loup, or wolf-traps, from twenty to seventy feet apart. At
every hundred yards or so there were fortifications. After night fell,
this fortified line was lighted by electricity. Twelve thousand men
comprised the garrison, besides outposts of half as many more.

Weyler prided himself greatly upon this trocha, which was intended to
keep the rebels at a distance.

But, in spite of all the precautions taken, the wily Maceo and his men
more than once crossed the trocha, and the Spanish were not the wiser
until it was too late to prevent them.

Once, when they had passed the obstruction without a shot being fired,
the insurgents tore up some distance of a railway line on the further
side of the trocha, the Cuban leader remarking:

"We did this just to show the enemy that we noticed their plaything."

The headquarters of the insurgents was and is up to the present writing,
a place called Cubitas, the top of a mountain, something over a score of
miles from Puerto Principe. It is practically impregnable, only a very
narrow spiral path leading up to it. A handful of men could defend it
against a large army. The little plain on top of the mountain has an
area of more than a square mile. It is arable land, and many food
products are raised there. The insurgents have constructed here quite a
number of wooden buildings, and they have also a dynamite factory. It
would take a long time to capture the place by storm or to starve the
defenders out.

The Cubans have had one great advantage, that is, they are acclimated.
Quite the contrary is true of the Spanish army of invasion, and their
ranks have suffered far more from the climate than they have from the
bullets of the foe. Added to this, their wages are greatly in