These poor fellows were arrested, their arms were tied, and they were taken to the police station. One of them had just completed a coffin for a woman, and he was dragged to the station with a rope about his neck. The next day, without even the pretense of a trial, they were taken two at a time into a ravine near the fort, where a trench had been lately dug, and in spite of the most pitiful pleas for mercy, they were shot down in cold blood by the cruel guards, who seemed to take fiendish delight in their work of blood.
The following statement was seat by Cuban, patriots, with the request that it be given the widest publicity possible, among the people of the United States:
"If the government that unhappily rules the destinies of this unfortunate country should be true to the most rudimentary principles of justice and morality, Colonel Jull, who has been recently appointed Military Governor of Matanzas province, should be in the galleys among criminals. It is but a short time since he was relieved by General Martinez Campos of the military command at Cienfuegos, as he had not once engaged any of the insurgent forces, but vented all his ferocious instincts against innocent and inoffensive peasants.
"In Yaguaramas, a small town near Cienfuegos, he arrested as suspects and spies Mr. Antonio Morejon, an honest and hard-working man, and Mr. Ygnacio Chapi, who is well advanced in years, and almost blind. Not being able to prove the charge against them, as they were innocent, he ordered Major Moreno, of the Barcelona battalion, doing garrison duty at Yaguaramas, to kill them with the machete and have them buried immediately. Major Moreno answered that he was a gentleman, who had come to fight for the integrity of his country, and not to commit murder. This displeased the colonel sorely, but, unfortunately, a volunteer sergeant, with six others, was willing to execute the order of the colonel, and Morejon and Chapi were murdered without pity.
"The order of Jull was executed in the most cruel manner. It horrifies to even think of it. Mr. Chapi, who knew the ways of Colonel Jull, on being awakened at three o'clock in the morning, and notified by the guard that he and Morejon had to go out, suspected what was to come, and told his companion to cry out for help as soon as they were taken out of the fort. They did so, but those who were to execute the order of Jull were neither moved nor weakened in their purpose.
A HORRIBLE SIGHT.
"On the contrary, at the first screams of Chapi and Morejon they threw a lasso over their heads, and pulled at it by the ends. In a few moments they fell to the ground choked to death. They were dragged on the earth, without pity, to the place where they were buried. All this bloody scene was witnessed by Jull from a short distance. Providence had not willed that so much iniquity should remain hidden forever. In the hurry the grave where these two innocent men were buried was not dug deep enough, and part of the rope with which they were choked remained outside. A neighbor, looking for a lost cow, saw the rope, took hold of it, and, on pulling, disinterred the head of one of the victims. He was terror stricken, and immediately gave notice to the judge, who, on ascertaining that the men had been killed by order of Colonel Jull, suspended proceedings.
"The neighbors and all the civil and military authorities know everything that has been related here, but such is the state of affairs on the island that General Weyler has no objection to appointing this monster, Colonel Jull, Military Governor of Matanzas. Such deeds as those enumerated are common. The people of the town of Matanzas, with Jull as Governor, and Arolas at the head of a column, will suffer in consequence of their pernicious and bloody instincts.
"That the readers may know in part who General Arolas is, it may be well to relate what has happened in the Mercedes estate, near Colon. It having come to his knowledge that a small body of rebels was encamped on the sugar estate Mercedes, of Mr. Carrillo, General Arolas went to engage them, but the rebels, who were few in numbers, retreated. Much vexed at not being able to discharge one shot at them, he made prisoners of three workmen who were out in the field herding the animals of the estate and without any formality of trial shot them. When the bodies were taken to the Central they were recognized, and to cover his responsibility somewhat, General Arolas said that when he challenged them they ran off, and at the first discharge of musketry they fell dead."