No. 381.
CONSULAR CORRESPONDENCE.
Mr. H. C. Hall to Mr.
Davis
No. 560.]
United States Consulate General,
Havana, October 13, 1871. (Received October
23.)
Sir: The accompanying slips from the New York
Herald of 24th ultimo and 2d instant purport to be telegrams transmitted
from this place. I have made inquiry, and have ascertained from an
authoritative source that the said telegrams have not been sent from
here.
In connection with the statements contained in the slips, I beg to transmit a
memorandum of a conversation with an intelligent gentleman, a British
subject, whom I consider entirely credible, who has lately visited the
eastern and central departments, from which it would appear that the
insurrection is still strong, and that there is as little probability of its
being promptly suppressed as there has been at any time during the past two
years.
I have the honor, &c.,
Inclosures.
No. 1.—Purported telegrams to the New York Herald.
No. 2.—Memorandum of a conversation with a gentleman from the eastern
department.
[Inclosure No. 1.]
[From the New
York Herald of September 24,
1871.]
Cuba—Herald special
report from Havana—Capture and surrender of all the prominent
leaders of the insurrection—A handful of marauders in hiding—A
proclamation to announce the end of the insurrection—Telegram to the
New York Herald.
The Herald correspondent at the Cuban capital has forwarded us the
following special dispatch:
Havana, September 24, 1871.
Letters from Puerto Principe announce that the eastern part of the
island, which included the whole seat of the insurrection, has been
completely pacified, and that the captain general will shortly return to
Havana.
All the principal leaders of the insurrection, with their forces, have
either surrendered or been captured, and there exists now only a handful
of marauders, who are hiding, and, as it appears, would also surrender,
but for the fear of being prosecuted by the local authorities for the
atrocities committed upon the lives and property of the inhabitants.
A proclamation by the captain general, declaring the insurrection at an
end, is shortly to be issued.
[From the New York Herald of October 2, 1871.]
PEACE IN CUBA.
Herald special report from Havana—The
telegraphic line between Puerto Principe and Havana
re-established—The pacification of Cuba complete—Telegram to the New
York Herald.
The Herald correspondent at the Cuban capital has forwarded us the
following special dispatch:
Havana, October 1, 1871.
The telegraphic line between Havana and Puerto Principe, which passes
through the district of Camaguey, the stronghold of the late
insurrection, has been completely re-established and is now in working
order.
[Page 793]
The line had been cut by the insurgents at the beginning of the struggle,
and kept interrupted ever since, by their possession of the intervening
large territory of the Camaguey.
The want of telegraphic communication with Havana hampered the operations
of the Spanish war authorities, and the insurrection had to be subdued
before the line could be held and repaired.
With the re-establishment of the telegraph between Havana and Puerto
Principe, the pacification of the island is complete.
[Inclosure No. 2.]
Havana Consulate,
October 13, 1871.
Memorandum.—A gentleman who has recently visited
the eastern and central departments of the island reports the
following:
That he was at Guantanamo a week ago, when an alarm was raised that the
insurgents were approaching the place. The governor ordered the
inhabitants into the block-houses, and prepared for defense. The
insurgents appeared on the outskirts of the town, but did not attack it,
contenting themselves with selecting and driving off all the best cattle
in the vicinity.
That the insurgents have full control of all the country around
Guantanamo, and within the radius of a league from Santiago de Cuba.
These places receive nearly all their provisions and supplies from the
western department.
That in a recent attack of the insurgents upon Yara, they completely
sacked the place, carrying off in their carts all the goods and
provisions of the place, as well as the commissary stores; they
afterward burned the place, not leaving a single building. The
resistance they met with was very trifling.
That the loyal inhabitants in those departments are exceedingly
despondent and dissatisfied; they are convinced that without large
re-enforcements from Spain, and more active co-operation on the part of
the western department, the task of suppressing the insurrection is a
hopeless one.
The slaves of the eastern department are being removed hither in large
numbers some to be sold and others to be hired. As they are all more or
less tainted with insurrectionary ideas, their influence upon the same
class in this department is to be feared.
That near Puerto Principe there was quite a sharp engagement, a few days
since between the government forces and insurgents, in which the former
were defeated.
