perhaps be the decisive battle of the war.

All the Cuban generals have had good luck lately, but the most successful
and brilliant work has been done by General Calixto Garcia in Santiago.

Lest you should feel confused when hearing of so many generals, and so
many provinces, it is perhaps as well to explain something about the
formation of the island of Cuba.

It is a narrow, mountainous strip of land, 760 miles long and in some
parts only 28 miles wide, the very broadest part being 127 miles.[A]

You can readily see that no one general could control the whole of such a
country.

The Cuban army has been divided into three parts:

The Eastern Division, under General Calixto Garcia, which is fighting in
and has brought peace to Santiago de Cuba, the most eastern part of the
island.

The Central Division, under the leadership of General Maximo Gomez,
against which Weyler has set out, and which is supposed to be in Santa
Clara.

The Western division, consisting of the bands that have been raiding the
suburbs of Havana, and making so much trouble in Pinar del Rio, the most
westerly province of the island.

The brilliant feat that General Garcia has accomplished is that he has
made a force of nearly three thousand Spanish soldiers come out to meet
him, and after pretending to fall back before them until he had lured them
to a certain place, he has turned upon them, and chased them into the
mountains, until he has finally forced them into the Algones Valley.

In this valley they are completely cut off from their friends, and he has
them at his mercy. News is hourly expected that the entire Spanish force
has either surrendered or been killed.

If this is true, it will be a very severe blow to Spain.

Reliable news has come that another part of Gomez's force has captured the
town of Holguin, an important town in Santiago de Cuba, and one of the few
strong-holds the Spanish still held in that province. It is said that
quantities of stores and ammunition fell into the Cubans' hands.

A telegram from Havana says that Fondeviella, now a lieutenant-colonel,
has been made Chief of Police in Havana. The Spaniards must certainly
approve of this horrible man's conduct, and Havana is likely to feel still
more uneasy with such a person in power. A later telegram reports the
capture of General Ruis Rivera, who was in command of the Western
Division. If this is true it will be a sad check to the Cuban successes.

[Footnote