helled the woods, and, having made a general cleaning out, they
sent word to the fleet that they could land the marines at any time.

On June 10, a detachment of marines from the Oregon landed, and soon
afterwards six hundred more were landed from the troop-ship Panther.
They found plenty of evidence that the Marblehead's shells had
induced the Spaniards to depart in a hurry. Watches, hammocks, two
field guns, and a lot of ammunition, were lying around. There were a
few buildings left, but the marines soon set fire to them. They then
drove off a few Spaniards who were about, and then pitched their
tents. Pretty soon they were attacked by a large body of Spaniards,
but they drove them off after having several men killed and quite a
number wounded. The place of encampment was named Camp McCalla, in
honor of the gallant commander of the Marblehead.

Before the marines were reinforced they were fighting nearly all the
time. It was the first time that most of them had been in battle, but
they fought like veterans. The Spaniards were very cunning and
constantly planned surprises for them, but the marines finally drove
them away and held their position until reinforcements came. One of
the marines, in writing home, said:

"They fight Indian fashion, and the guerillas strip off all their
clothing and dress themselves with leaves and crawl along the ground
like snakes, and at night it is very hard to see or hear them. Then,
again, they dig holes in the ground and cover them over with brush and
conceal themselves there until their prey comes along. Their signals
are very hard to understand, and they sound like birds and are very
deceiving.

[Illustration: A Spanish Guerilla.]

"We have to carry our rifles and ammunition with us wherever we go.
Yesterday morning, while we were eating our breakfast, they fired
upon us, and we immediately pursued them. We had quite a battle and
came out victorious by a big score. We killed sixty and left about
fifteen or twenty badly wounded. We had a lucky escape, only two men
being wounded. We stayed out all night, and were relieved by another
company this morning, and we had nothing to eat for forty-eight hours;
but this is not the first time that we have missed our meals--it is an
every-day occurrence. We had four hardtacks, a little piece of butter
and a cup of coffee.

"We were reinforced by sixty Cuban insurgents last night. They were
fitted out with uniforms and rifles by the Marblehe