388 CHAPTER XXXII.

THE FALL OF SANTIAGO.

out to a barren country and starvation some 20,000 women' and children, and destroy their homes. The villagesofElCaney, and Cuavitas, and Dos Bocas were designated as places to which the people might go, the formerbeing in the hands of the Americans,and the latter in those of the Cubans ;but, of course,there was no food at either, and little shelter, and the country round was barrenin consequenceof the three years' war."

EARLY in the morning of Sunday, July 3rd, General Shafter had telegraphed to Washington, describing the situation before Santiago as very serious, and suggesting a retirement to the hills near the coast.

At half- past two the same afternoon he sent a message in to General Toral, summoning him to surrender Santiago without further delay, and threatening to bombard the city if it was Thus the mission of not handed over to theconsuls hadlittle result except to prepare the way for a miserable exodus of the civil population ofSantiago.

him immediately. The contrast between these two messages showshow everything had changed in a few hours. Toralshowed the summons to Mr. Ramsden, and he assembled the other consuls ;and, after a brief deliberation,theypro-The fate of the fleet was not known in the city till the afternoon, when bands of weary- fugitives, many of them wounded, came THE PROVINCE OF SANTIAGO. (The district surrendered is shaded.)

straggling in from ceededtotheAmerican headcpaarters behind San Juan hill. Generals Kent and Wheeler met the consuls, and, after telegraphing to Shafter, told them that the bombardmentwould be delayedfor twentyfour hours. To put it familiarly, this talk of bombardment was a piece of bluff. The Americans had neither the guns nor the ammunition up at the front ; and, with one muddy hill-road to bring them up by from Siboney,they could not expect them for some days to come. But the consuls couldnot know this. Considering that the army had been elevendays onCuban soil, they supposed that it had brought up its artillery. And they knew that, in any case, the fleet could repeat its previous performances. So they took the threat seriously.

the westward and told the terrible tale. Two small tug-boats, the Colon and the Esmeralda, had slipped out under Socapa after the destruction of the torpedo boats, and had picked up some of their crews floating on wreckage or waiting on the shore. By this time the American ships were all inchase of the cruisers, and the little steamers got safely back into harbour. For some hours it was thought that, though the torpedo boats had failed to get avvav, the cruisers had escaped ; and for some days there was uncertainty as to the fate of the Cristobal Colon.

At times during the day there had been desultory firing at the trenches,chiefly on the north side of the city, where the Cubans faced the Spaniards. In the eveningColonel Escario marched into Santiago with the long-expected reinforcements from Manzanillo. He had started onJune 22nd with 3,700 men, regulars and volunteers, a few mountain guns, and a "We explained to the generals," writes Ramsden, " what a frightful act they were about to commit, and that, while doing no harm whatever to the Spanish army, they woulddrive