The History of Cuba, vol. 3

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

"Santiago de Cuba, Nov. 4, 1873.

"To His Excellency, the Captain-General:

"At six o'clock this morning, we shot in this city, for being traitors to their country, and for being insurgent chiefs, the following persons, styling themselves 'patriot generals': Bernabe Varona, alias Barnbeta, General of Division; Pedro Cespedes, Commanding General of Cienfuegos; General Jesus Del Sol; and Brigadier-General Washington Ryan. The executions took place in the presence of the entire corps of Volunteers, the force of regular infantry, and the sailors from the fleet. An immense concourse of people also witnessed the act. The best of order prevailed. The prisoners met their death with composure."

There followed a summary court martial of the remainder of the company; conducted according to the ruthless Spanish fashion, and under the domination of the implacable Volunteers. The result was that Captain Fry and forty-eight of the crew and passengers, including a number of Americans and Englishmen, were sentenced to death. The sentence was promptly executed, despite the earnest and urgent official protests of the American and British consuls of Havana and their demands for at least a decent delay of proceedings to enable them to consult their governments and to have interviews with the condemned men. In fact, the American consul was prevented from doing anything more than to protest by being made a virtual prisoner in his own house, under a strong guard of Spanish soldiers; under the pretence that in the excited state of public feeling it would be unsafe for him to go upon the street.

The tragedy began on the afternoon of November 7, at 4 o'clock. The scene was the chief public square of Santiago. It was ordered that the victims should be shot in groups of four; all the others being compelled to witness the fate of their fellows. As on the former occasion, a great company of the Volunteers attended the butchery, together with a multitude of the populace. In the first group of four was Captain Fry himself. He refused to have his eyes bandaged, or to turn his back to his slayers, and with his latest breath spoke words of comfort and cheer to his comrades. The other victims of that day's slaughter were James Flood, mate; J. C. Harris, John N. Boza, B. P. Chamberlain, William Rose, Ignacio Dueñas, Antonio Deloyo, Jose Manuel Ferran, Ramon La Wamendi, Eusebio Gariza, Edward Day, Francisco S. Trujillo, Jack Williamson, Porfirio Corbison, Pedro Alfaro, Thomas Gregg, Frank Good, Paul Plumer, Barney Hewals, Samuel Card, John Brown, Alfred Hosell, W. F. Price, George Thomas, Ezekiel Durham, Thomas W. Williams, Simeon Brown, Leopold Larose, A. Arcey, John Stewart, Henry Bond, George Thomson, James Samuel, Henry Frank, and James Read—35 men beside the Captain. More than two-thirds of them were obviously, judging from their names, Americans or Englishmen. It is probable, however, that many of these names, as also those of the passengers, were assumed, in order to conceal the identity of their bearers in just such an emergency as this.

The next day, November 8, the massacre was continued, the victims of that day being Arturo Mola, Francisco Mola, Louis Sanchez (who was in fact Herminio Quesada, an active revolutionist), Jose Bortel, Augustin Varona, Salvador Pinedo, Enrique Castellanos, Joseph Otero, Francisco Rivera (otherwise Augustin Santa Rosa, an active patriot), Oscar Varona, Justus Consuegra, and William S. Valls—12 in all; making with the 35 and the Captain of the day before, and the four of November 4, the total of 52. But even this wholesale slaughter did not appease the blood-lust of the Volunteers, or of General Burriel, the Spanish commander at Santiago. Ninety-three more of the passengers of the Virginius were held in prison under sentence of death, which there was every reason to fear would be executed.

But a militant Providence intervened. The British government learned of what had been done, and of what was threatened. In consequence, as quickly as engines under forced draught could drive her thither, the British cruiser Niobe sped to Santiago harbor. She entered the inner harbor, rounded broadside to the city, and double-shotted her guns. Then her captain, the intrepid Sir Lambton Lorraine, went ashore and demanded of General Burriel that there should be no more murders. That worthy protested that it was no affair of Sir Lambton's, since there were no British subjects among the men. This latter statement was false, though Sir Lambton did not know it, and may have thought it true. But Sir Lambton knew his business. He curtly replied that the nationality of the prisoners did not enter into his consideration of the affair; he was there to stop the butchery, and the butchery must stop. The Spanish general retorted hotly that he was not yet under British rule, and that until he was he would take his orders from the Captain-General of Cuba. To that Sir Lambton replied that as for him, he took his orders from the Queen of England, at whose command the Niobe lay in the harbor with her guns double-shotted and trained on the city, the biggest of them, indeed, aimed at the governor's palace; and he gave warning that the slaying of another prisoner would be the irrevocable signal for every gun to be put into action. It was enough. There were no more shootings; and presently all the prisoners were released.

Cuba is world-famed for its land-locked harbors, described as bottle-shaped, or purse-shaped, with a narrow but deep entrance leading to a spacious inland lagoon, secure from storms and affording room for vast fleets to ride at anchor. One of the largest and finest of these is at the old capital, Santiago; so large that a scene upon its waters appears like one on the open Caribbean. It was from this harbor that Admiral Cervera's fleet emerged to be destroyed in the great sea fight which broke the power of Spain in Cuba.

Following is a list of the captured passengers on the Virginius, who were bound to Cuba for the purpose of serving in the revolution. It does not include those who were bound for the island on legitimate personal business, but does include those already mentioned as having been put to death: