Providence has reserved a fairer future for this noble country than to
be possessed by this horde of tatterdemalions. Under the impetus of
American energy and capital, governed by a firm military hand with
even justice, it will blossom as the rose; and, in the course of three
or four generations, even the Cuban may be brought to appreciate the
virtues of cleanliness, temperance, industry, and honesty.
Our good roads ended at Siboney, and from there on to Gen. Wheeler's
headquarters was some of the worst road ever traveled. Part of it lay
through deep valleys, where the sun was visible scarcely more than an
hour at noontime, and the wet, fetid soil was tramped into a muck of
malarial slime under foot of the mules and men. The jungle became
ranker, the Spanish bayonets longer and their barbs sharper in these
low bottom jangles. The larger undergrowth closed in more sharply on
the trail, and its boughs overhung so much in some places that it
became necessary to cut them away with axes in order to pass.
These guns were the first wheeled vehicles that had ever disturbed the
solitude of this portion of Cuba. The chocolate-colored natives of
Cuba sneak; the white native of Cuba, when he travels at all, goes on
horseback.
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