Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1897 — CUBANS LIVE ON PLANTS. [ARTICLE]

CUBANS LIVE ON PLANTS.

The Insurgent Army Needs No Commissary Department. One of the most disappointed men in town is Capt Buenco, of the Cuban army. The captain, who is a member of the largest banking house in San Diego, Cuba, came to New York last July .on a special mission. He soon finished his business and has been trying ever since to get back to fight with bis company. Twice he has attempted to get awa’y, once, it is said, on the Hawkins, and again on the Bermuda. The second failure, which resulted in his being held in $2,500 ball to appear before the grand Jury, prevented him from going on the vessel when she again weighed anchor last Sunday morning. “I was all through with my business on July 20,” said the captain, “and here I am still, held by this hail until I don’t know when. Every time I’ve tried to get away something has happened. If the people in charge of the Bermuda had labeled their boxes, the government would not have stopped the steamer and I Bhould be back with my friends by this time, with a chance to help them. Here I can do nothing. I am useless. “Look at Col. Perez there. He and I began together. We were old schoolmates, you know. He stayed and fought and now he is a colonel. If I could have gotten back I’d be a colonel, too, or dead. Oh, well, the rainy season is coming on, and after that the fever. That will make the Spaniards sick. In the last war 38 per cent, of them died of fever—to say nothing of those we put out of the way with our machetes and bullets. “Of course, they cannot ride at all. Perez has told you about that; but we can outmarch them, too. One night, about a year ago, we broke camp and started to meet Maceo and Marti. We knew that they were to land about forty leagues away. By noon the next day we had marched eighteen leagues, but we were not too tired to attack a Spanish column that came down on our flank, a little to the rear. We had a lively fight until 5 o’clock, when Maceo and Marti came up. Then, together, we drove the enemy out of sight. “We ought to have been pretty tired by that time. Don’t you think so? Well, we were not very fresh, but orders were given to return by the route we came, and, after hunting up something to eat from what the Spaniards had abaudoned In their flight, we marched back the whole eighteen leagues, reaching our starting place the next afternoon. You won’t find any Spaniards to do that. We couldn’t if we weren’t used to the food and to the climate and hadn’t lived out of doors all our lives. “Another thing in our favor, especially in the hilly country, where the woods are dense, Is that we know what plants and roots are good for food and which poisonous. Almost anywhere In Cuba therd Is enough stuff growing wild to keep a man alive, if he knows how to get it We do; so, we can go about without a commissary department. When we halt for breakfast or supper, there is a bugle call as a signal to prepare to hunt—get out sacks ready, etc. Thena second call, meaning to disperse to the woods. In a half hour, perhaps, you will see all the men back In camp} each with some fruit or vegetable that he has plucked or dug out of the ground. We eat those things and they agree us. If the Spanish eat them they have a pain In the stomach. “All we need to drive the Spaniards out Is supplies. We’ve more men than we can arm. So it Is no use for anyone to come to us looking for a Job, unless he knows something about artillery. Then we might use him, but I do noi know certainly.”—New York Press.