They found Santiago very much like other Cuban cities they had visited. But the recent rule by United States authority was very much in evidence and even the side streets, unusually narrow, were clean and orderly. Santiago lies near the head of the bay, on the eastern shore, and in the distance they could see the hills of El Caney and San Juan, made famous in the Spanish-American war by Roosevelt’s Rough Riders and others of Uncle Sam’s soldier boys. Coming up the coast from Cape Cruz they had already had pointed out to them the spots where the Spanish warships had either been sunk or run ashore by our warships under Commodores Sampson and Schley.
“It must have been a great victory,” said Darry, when they were touring the city. “How scared the people must have been when they were told that our troops were pressing in on them.”
“The fortifications were several miles outside of the city limits,” returned the professor. “But gradually, after the fall of the blockhouses at El Caney and San Juan, our troops hemmed the Spaniards in closer and closer, and then there was, of course, much anxiety. You see, the Spanish soldiers were in a bad situation, for even the citizens of the town were largely against them and hoped for a Yankee victory.”
Among the places of interest visited were the prisons in which our captured soldiers and sailors had been kept. Some of the underground dungeons made them shudder.
“Cubans were kept here as well as our people,” said Professor Strong. “Some of the Cuban rebels, as they were called, were held in solitary confinement for years. It was horrible, and it is a grand good thing that Spain’s hold on this island has at last been broken.”
In Santiago they saw something which they had already noted in other towns but which nevertheless made then laugh again and again. This was a milkman driving his cows through the street and crying: “Milk for sale! Good milk for sale!” in Spanish. When somebody wanted milk the vendor would stop one of his cows, take the bowl or shell brought to him, and milk out as much of the lacteal fluid as was desired.
“Anyway, they get it fresh,” was Frank’s comment, when talking of the matter. “They can’t adulterate it either.”
The boys had thought to spend several days in Santiago, which is the capital city of the Eastern Department of Cuba, but Professor Strong learned that a particularly good steamer would sail for Cape Haytien in Hayti and San Juan, Porto Rico, on the day following, and he resolved to take this, so a talked-of ride into the interior had to be given up.
“Never mind,” said Amos Strong. “When we get to Porto Rico we will take the long ride over the old military road from San Juan to Ponce. That will give you a good idea of rural life in the West Indies. If we miss this steamer there is no telling when we will get one quite so good.”
“Oh, let’s go on by all means,” put in Hockley. “Santiago is too dead slow for me. It’s a good deal like all the rest of Cuba.”