loss of many lives that the Spaniards
retained their hold on the district about Bayamo.

Late in 1890 General Calixto Garcia, now second in rank to Gomez, and
playing an important part in the aiding of the American troops, landed
on the island with strong reinforcements. Garcia, who was also a veteran
of the Ten Years' War had several more or less important engagements
with the Spanish, in almost all of which he was victorious.

Antonio Maceo, in order to consult with Gomez, crossed the trocha on
the night of December 4, 1896. The next day, at the head of five hundred
men and within an hour's ride of Havana, he was killed in a skirmish,
just as he had made the declaration that all was going well. A young son
of Gomez, who was suffering from an old wound, and who refused to leave
the ground until his chief was carried away, was also killed.

There is not the shadow of a doubt but that this double catastrophe was
due to the treachery of one of Maceo's companions, a certain Dr.
Zertucha.

One of Maceo's aides tells the story as follows: "Firing was heard near
Punta Brava, and Zertucha, who had ridden off to one side of the road,
came galloping back, crying: "Come with me! Come with me! Quick! Quick!"
Maceo at once put spurs to his horse, and, followed by his five aids,
rode swiftly after the physician, who plunged into the thick growth on
the side of the road.

The party had only ridden a few yards, when Zertucha, bent low in his
saddle, and swerved sharply to one side, galloping away like mad.

Almost at the same moment, a volley was fired by a party of Spanish
soldiers hidden in the dense underbrush, and Maceo and four of his men
dropped out of their saddles, mortally wounded."

The single survivor, the man whose words are quoted above, contrived to
get back to his own party and brought them to the scene of the tragedy.
The Spaniards were driven away, Maceo's body was found stripped, and
young Gomez had been stabbed, and his skull was broken.

The traitor Zertucha surrendered to the Spanish by whom naturally he was
treated with the utmost kindness and consideration.

Afterwards Zertucha attempted to blacken Maceo's memory by declaring
that he was disheartened and desperate, and that his death was the
result of his own folly.

Senor Palma says of this:

"General Maceo was loved and supported by all men struggling for Cuban
independence, whether in a military or civil capacity. If a man was ever
idolized by h