Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1874 — HORRIBLE! [ARTICLE]

HORRIBLE!

Further Concerning the Sufferings of the Virginias Prisoners. New York, December 28. A reporter of the TWtarie, who boarded the Juniata, obtained full particulars from a variety of sources concerning the treatment received by the prisoners at the hands of their Spanish captors. All these reports agree in one particular, namely: that the treatment received was uniformly harsh and in some cases barbarous. A fact which has not generally been known, by statements of prisoners now comes to light, which is, that they were robbed by the crew of the Tornado, and nearly ail who owned anything were robbed of money, jewelry, watches and other valuables. The prisoners were taken to the jail of Santiago soon after their arrival in port. Here they were crowded together like cattle; here their sufferings began. They were not confined to separate cells —indeed, there was no,opportunity for such confinement in the contracted quarters of the Santiago jail—but the entire party of nearly 200 were driven into a small room, hardly fifty feet wide by ten feet lons. Here they were obliged to live as best they could, 1 hough the air, of course, was almost deadly, and there was little or no opportunity for exercise. The prisoners were supplied with provisions which, though sufficient as regards quantity, were poor in quality, and hardly fitted to tustain life. The provisions consisted wholly of rice and water. One night the prisoners were stealthily taken from the jail and marched with the greatest haste I

to a point seven miles below the city, in the vicinity of Morro. The road lay through a rough tract of country, and the journey was most wearisome, while some of the prisoners were so sick as to be almost unable to stand. The sufferings of the number were intense, and no pity was in the breasts of the Spaniards. At this point on the coast they were placed on board the steamer Bazean, which at once set sail for Havana. At Manzeilla it was met by the mail steamer coming in the opposite direction. On the steamer was General Burriel, who at once ordered the Bazean to return to Santiago. She turned about, but soon run aground, and the passengers were transferred to another vessel. There they suffered horrors heretofore unknown." They were crowded in the hold of the vessel, where scarcely a ray of sunlight could struggle in, and the air was poison. The darkness was almost continuous. The food they ate was wretched in quality and insufficient in quantity, and the water they drank was what remained in the buckets after the dumb animals were satisfied. These animals consisted mainly of horses and mules. They were kept on the deck above the Virginius’ prisoners, and were thus a constant source of annoyance to the helpless people confined below. It was in the midst of all this filth and suffering that the prisoners were not allowed to wash for ten days, and their hrms were pinioned behind them the larger portion of the voyage. They were occasionally beaten on the slightest provocation, and sometimes on no provocation at all. These punishments, however, seem not to have been of a nature so serious as to produce any lasting effects.