CHAPTER XXII.

A WAYSIDE ROMANCE.

WHILE the Spaniards were expecting General Miles to land at Cape San Juan, and preparing to meet him there, he held a consultation on the 25th of July with his officers and informed them that they would suddenly dart in by the Mona Passage, land at Guanica, and by this sudden flank movement strike the enemy at a point where they were least prepared to receive them. The course of the fleet was immediately changed in accordance with this command, and the expedition under General Brooke directed to follow.

Guanica was close to the railroad leading into Ponce, and it was considered very desirable to secure this means of transportation for troops and supplies. Guanica Bay is a quiet place, surrounded by cultivated lands. In the rear are high mountains, while close to the beach nestles a village of twenty houses. The Spaniards were taken so completely by surprise that the first warning they received of the approach of the army of invasion was in the announcement

contained in the report of a gun from the Gloucester, demanding that the Spaniards haul down their flag, which was floating from the flagstaff in front of a blockhouse standing to the east of the village. Two three-pounders were fired into the hills right and left of the bay, purposely avoiding the town for fear some of the women or children might be hurt by the shot. The Gloucester hove to, within about six hundred yards of the shore, and lowered a launch, having on board a Colt rapid-fire gun and thirty men, under command of Lieutenant Huse, which reached shore without encountering opposition.

Scarcely had the Americans landed, tho, when about thirty Spaniards appeared at the upper end of the valley and opened fire on them with Mauser rifles. The Americans answered their shots, and the Colt rapid-fire gun poured a stream of shot at the enemy. The firing had scarcely commenced when the Gloucester began to shell the Spaniards' position with her three- and six-pounders, shattering the houses, and dropping shells even into the woods and hills to the west of Guanica, where a number of Spanish cavalry were to be seen hastening toward the spot where the Americans had landed.

There was a brief lull in the conflict, which Lieutenant Huse took advantage of to throw up a little

earthwork, which he named Fort Wainwright in honor of the commander of the Gloucester.

The Spanish cavalry, which had been seen skirting the hills, joined the infantry fighting in the streets, and seemed forming for a charge. The Americans in the little fort poured in a destructive fire on them, and the Colt gun barked to a purpose. Men began to fall and blood flow. The Gloucester also having found the range of the town and blockhouse, all her guns began to belch fire and death.

Soon afterward, white-coated, galloping cavalrymen were seen climbing the hills to the westward, while foot soldiers were scurrying along the fences from the town. Four dead Spaniards were found lying in the streets.

By 9:48 A.M., with the exception of a few guerrillas, the town was won and the enemy driven out of its neighborhood. The Red Cross nurses and the regulars were the first to land from the transports. Lieutenant Huse, being reenforced by Company G of the Sixth Illinois and the regulars, threw out a line of pickets about the town to protect the troops and Red Cross nurses landing,

The campaign of General Miles was more like a grand triumphal procession in a friendly country than the invasion of a hostile land for the purpose of conquest. The city of Ponce was formally turned over to the Americans. On July 28, Ferdinand

Torro, the British consul, acting in behalf of the Spaniards, placed the town and fort in possession of Major-Gen. Nelson A. Miles. As Generals Miles

and Wilson entered the city, they were met by the Bombero, or city fire brigade, and bands playing American airs. The people cheered the generals as they went to the city hall to receive the formal surrender from Mayor Colon.

The political prisoners in the Cuartel de Infantaria were released by the Americans. Redolf Figeroa was saved in the nick of time from being shot by the Spaniards. He was charged with having cut the telegraph wire between Ponce and San Juan the night before. He cut the wires to prevent the authorities in Ponce from sending to San Juan for reenforcements. He had been led from his cell for execution, when the Americans suddenly burst into the harbor. The Spaniards fled and Figeroa escaped. Some men who had been political prisoners for years were released.

Those citizens who fled before the approach of the Americans, on learning that they had no intention of interfering with the private rights of any one, returned to the city, bringing back their treasures to the banks and stores, which they had feared would be looted by those terrible Yankees.

The Second and Third Wisconsin troops scouted over the hills for lurking Spaniards, while the Six

teenth Pennsylvania, which landed at noon, patroled the city.

A splendid military road of macadam extended from Ponce to San Juan. Along this road across the island the main fighting was expected. There were seven towns along the road to be taken, but at only Aibonito and Caguas, General Miles was told, he need expect any serious opposition.

Fernando Stevens, who landed with the first American troops, went to Ponce with General Miles, and there was detached for service under Lieut. Luke W. Terrill, who was a splendid specimen of manhood from that splendid rearingground of men, Kentucky. He was a good six feet in height, with a fine sweep of shoulders and the free stride of an Indian. His eyes were frank and blue. His hair and mustache were the color of the chestnuts in the woods at home. Terrill and Stevens, with fifty men, were sent to guard the hacienda of a rich Spaniard from Barcelona, who, with a small party of Spanish troops, was still skirmishing near Ponce. The Puerto Ricans hated him because he was a Spaniard and wealthy, and only spent a month or two of the year at his hacienda.

When it became known that the American army intended to invade Puerto Rico, the Spaniard's patriotism could no longer be restrained, and he began to organize a body of loyalists to aid in the defense of