since receiving a scant quart eighteen hours
before. 'Let's see,' said the United States cavalrymen, quietly, 'the
pumps are hopeless, but we can draw up one bucketful every minute from
the hold aft, and one every minute from the forward hatch. We ought to
water all in ten hours. Form lines and water solid. The horse you skip
will be dead in the morning.'

"The horses stand with swollen legs far apart, instinctively to prevent
a fall. Once down, they know they never can get up. Their heads hang low
and their breathing comes in a whistle from parched lungs through a
long, dry throat and dusty mouth. There is an occasional form in the
black galleys. It is some trooper, his big arms around the neck of his
beloved dying mount, with tears in his eyes, but petting and talking to
the animal as if it understood. Then ropes over blocks begin to draw
buckets of water from sixty feet below. Immediately each horse or mule
has its draught, it is bathed in perspiration, and skin dry and
shriveled becomes soft and pliable. One can feel in the dark, whether a
horse has been missed or not.

"There is a delay and an anxious inquiry from above: 'What's the
matter?' 'Haul away,' is the response, and the bucket comes heavy this
time. Oh, it's only a man, stark naked, fainting, with a rope beneath
his arms, and head away to one side. 'Hospital case, overcome, haul
away,' and another bucket swings upward."

Of course the objective point of the whole campaign was the capital,
San Juan, on the northeastern coast of the island. Nevertheless the
troops were mostly landed on the southern coast not far from the
southwestern corner. The plan was to drive all the Spanish troops upon
the island into San Juan, where they could be captured upon the
surrender of that city.

The Spaniards abandoned precipitately the whole southern coast line, and
this seemed to promise an easy march for the Americans across Porto
Rico.

But this was not exactly the case, as we shall proceed to demonstrate.

There were several causes why the Spaniards fled before the invading
Americans.

One was that in the beginning the Spanish forces, from lack of knowledge
as to where the Americans would land, were widely scattered. By
retreating, the coast garrisons were brought together in bodies of more
or less magnitude. More than this in the interior could be found
stronger positions for defense, and there only land forces would have to
be dealt with.

It is probable tha