crosses the Aguadores or Guamo River, and where the iron
railroad-bridge and the approach to the city are guarded by a wooden
blockhouse and an old stone fort. In the second notch, about six miles
from Aguadores and ten from Morro Castle, are the hamlet and
railroad-station of Siboney; and in the third, five miles farther to the
eastward, lies the somewhat larger and more important mining village of
Daiquiri, which, before the war, was the shipping-port of the
Spanish-American Iron Company. There is no harbor, shelter for vessels,
or safe anchorage at any of these places; but as the rampart, everywhere
else, presents an almost insurmountable barrier, an invading force must
either disembark in these notches, or go eastward to the Bay of
Guantanamo and march forty miles to Santiago through the foot-hills.
General Shafter, after inspecting the coast, decided to land in the
notches occupied by the villages of Daiquiri and Siboney. He could then
advance on Santiago either along the strip of beach under the rampart,
by way of Aguadores and Morro Castle, or over a rough wagon-road running
through the valleys and across the foot-hills of the interior, three or
four miles back of the rampart.

The first difficulty which confronted him was that due to the lack of
landing facilities. Not anticipating, apparently, that he might be
forced to disembark on an unsheltered coast, he had neglected to provide
himself with suitable surf-boats, and was wholly dependent upon the
small boats of the transports and a single scow, or lighter, which he
had brought with him from Tampa. Seeing that it would be impossible to
land sixteen thousand men safely and expeditiously with such facilities,
he applied for help to Admiral Sampson, and was furnished by the latter
with fifty-two small boats and a number of steam-launches, all manned by
officers and sailors from the fleet. Thus provided, he began the work of
disembarkation on the morning of June 22 at Daiquiri, the vessels of the
fleet, meanwhile, making feigned attacks at several other points along
the coast, and shelling the notches and villages of both Siboney and
Daiquiri, in order to drive the enemy back and cover the advance of the
loaded boats.

Fortunately for General Shafter and for his troops, the Spaniards did
not attempt to oppose the landing. If the sides of the notches and the
foot-hills back of them had been fortified with earthworks and held by a
daring enemy with a battery or two