A GALLANT FIGHT. 367 detonations of our guns we eouldclearly see the Spaniards rising to deliver their volley fire ;no smoke obscured our vision,nor did the pour or our bullets in upon their trench restrain them fromcoolly answering our fire. As often as the roar ceased with us we heard the cracking of their rifles. So alldaylong the fight went on, and still those Spaniards rose as if they were part ofa machine anddeliveredtheirdeadly fire."

Even when the fort was taken they stuck to their work. " They and their commander,who now stood erect on the level ground above the trench,appeared to takeno heed of the situation of their comrades. They seemed to assume that they had been placed there to defend that trench, and they had no other thought but to defendit."

the sort was a correspondent of the New York Journal,Mr. Joseph Creelman. He it was who called out to the Spaniards in the fort to surrender, promising them that no harm would be done to them. There wereonly some thirtymen inside the stone wall. The Spanish flag had beenshot downand lay on the crest of the rampart. Creelman, climbing up to secure it, was shot through the shoulder by a bullet from the town,where the Spaniards stillheldout. A brave infantryman mounted the roof andfixed the Stars and Stripes to the shattered flagstaff. Then the victors took advantageof what shelter the fort and the hill-top afforded, and lay down to return the fire from the neighbouring blockhouses and the trees and housesof the town; for,though their citadel was gone, the Spaniards held doggedlyon toElCaney. No wonder thatwith men like these Vara de Rey was able to make such a magnificent stand. Of his little garrison, some 250. or half the entire force, were killed or severely wounded. His brother and his two son- \\e\e with him; all three were killed. He himself was carried into the town of El Caney mortally wounded about four o'clock, and died soon after. By that time the fort and the neighbouring workhad fallen into the hands of the American.. Lawton had given Chaffee permission to assault the works as soon as he judged that he could do so with success. Towards three o'clock the Spanish fire began toslacken— theywererunning short of cartridges. They had been supplied with 66,000 rounds of ammunition before the fight, or about 120 per man. They must have been well in hand to hold out for nearly nine hours and still have some shots left to fire. Their heavy losses were also diminishing their power of resistance,and at threeGeneral Chaffee launched the 12th Regulars against the fort and the trenches in front of it. They lost many men in this dash which broke from cover about 300 yards from the Spanish line. The little remnant of the Spanish gairison threw down their arms assoon as the stormers had got over the trench. The Americans were then pouring up the slope in hundreds. First in the rush tor It was nearly an hour before they,or rather a small remnant of them, were driven out before the convergingattack of Lawton's brigades. Byfour o'clock the only spot they held was a small blockhouse away to the northwards, the same the Cubans had se. cautiously attacked. The garrison of El Caney, besides half their number killed and wounded,lost 158 prisoners, including tvvei lieutenant-. Eighty officers and men, mostly wounded, succeeded in reaching the lines e.t Santiago, from which, as evening fell, artillery and rifles sent a long-ranging fire into the lost outpost.

The Americans, many of them recruits of a few weeks' service, had fought splendidly. The Spanish historian of the siege,an officer on the staff of the place, speaks enthusiasticallyof their valour at El Caney. They exposed themselves to tire,he savs,as if they had no life to lose,and when thev advanced it was as if they were " moving Statues," not men with nerves to be shaken by the sight of deathand danger. It was this tierce struggle for El Caney that taught American and Spaniard to know and respect each other ; henceforth no American soldier uttered or countenanced a word of insult or contempt for the gallant men who fought in this forlorn hope in defence of Spanish rule inCuba.