was defended with much valor, but compelled to surrender.
Afterward, however, they were transported to the Cabanas hills, and
there, on the site of the fortifications (above which, in 1904, the
American flag last waved in token of possession in Cuba), Israel Putnam
and his Provincials joined the British troops. And they were welcome,
beyond a doubt, for nearly half the British army was incapacitated
through fevers, and many men had died.

[Illustration: Fort near Havana where the Colonials landed.]

The arrival of the sturdy Colonials gave the besiegers of the Morro new
strength, and fresh courage, and within a few days they were called upon
to assist at carrying the castle by storm. The English had been a long
time sapping toward the fortress walls, and a breach having been opened
near the bastion, the combined assailants poured through in an
invincible flood. The Duke of Albermarle, who commanded the British
forces, had informed the comandante of the castle that he had mined the
bastion and demanded a capitulation. But the heroic commander, Don Luis
de Velasco, spurned the proffer, and as a consequence the castle was
stormed, and he was included among the five hundred slain on that
occasion. A tablet to his memory may be seen affixed against the
seaward wall of the Morro, and from the parapet may be traced the
British and Provincial line of approach.

The bastion they breached was afterward repaired; but nothing could
repair the terrible losses sustained by both armies through sickness
caused by exposure and bad water. More than one-third of the Colonials
died of disease; but nothing seemed to trouble sturdy Old Put, who was
everywhere among his men, with comfort and consolation, carrying water
to the wounded, supporting the dying. The chaplain of the Connecticut
troops one day recorded in his diary: "Col. Putman and Lt. Parks went
off into ye country to buy fresh provisions." Two days later he noted
the death of Putnam's companion in this trip into the country; and that
was in October, only a few days before orders were given for the
Colonials to embark for New York.

Havana capitulated soon after its only real defense, Morro Castle, was
taken, and the English entered into possession. But imagine the
feelings of the surviving soldiers who had gone so far and been exposed
to so great peril, when they learned, less than a year later, that the
city and fortress that had cost so dear had been given up, in exchange
f