you yesterday, I have
to give again to-day--that this place will not be
surrendered.

I am, yours with great respect and consideration,

(Signed) JOSE TORAL.

In Santiago de Cuba, July 4, 1898.

Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 6, 1898.

To the Commander-in-Chief, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba.

Sir:--In view of the events of the 3d instant, I have the
honor to lay before your Excellency certain propositions to
which, I trust, your Excellency, will give the consideration
which, in my judgment, they deserve.

I inclose a bulletin of the engagement of Sunday morning
which resulted in the complete destruction of Admiral
Cervera's fleet, the loss of six hundred of his officers and
men, and the capture of the remainder. The Admiral, General
Paredes and all others who escaped alive are now prisoners
on board the Harvard and St. Louis, and the latter ship, in
which are the Admiral, General Paredes and the surviving
captains (all except the captain of the Almirante Oquendo,
who was slain) has already sailed for the United States. If
desired by you, this may be confirmed by your Excellency
sending an officer under a flag of truce to Admiral Sampson,
and he can arrange to visit the Harvard, which will not sail
until to-morrow, and obtain the details from Spanish
officers and men on board that ship.

Our fleet is now perfectly free to act, and I have the honor
to state that unless a surrender be arranged by noon of the
9th instant, a bombardment will be begun and continued by
the heavy guns of our ships. The city is within easy range
of these guns, the eight-inch being capable of firing 9,500
yards, the thirteen-inch, of course, much farther. The ships
can so lie that with a range of 8,000 yards they can reach
the centre of the city.

I make this suggestion of a surrender purely in a
humanitarian spirit. I do not wish to cause the slaughter of
any more men, either of your Excellency's forces or my own,
the final result, under circumstances so disadvantageous to
your Excellency being a foregone conclusion.

As your Excellency may wish to make reference of so
momentous a question to your Excellency's home government,
it is for this purpose that I have placed the time of th