ntained, and was more
respected by the people than that of Spain. In brief it was
substantially true, as President Cisneros declared, that the island was
peaceful, law-abiding and well-governed, excepting in those places where
the Spanish invaders were making trouble!

But the Spanish did make trouble. Weyler once more strove to place an
impassable barrier between Pinar del Rio and Havana, to keep Maceo shut
up in the former province. He constructed it so strongly, with ditches,
block houses, barbed wire fences, artillery and what not as to make it
almost impossible of passage. Then he put 10,000 of his best troops west
of it, to fight Maceo, and distributed 28,000 more along the trocha to
keep Maceo from breaking out. The result was most unfortunate for the
Spanish troops west of the trocha. They were there to hunt down Maceo.
Instead, Maceo hunted them. If they ventured to attack him, he repulsed
them. More often he attacked them, and almost invariably routed them. At
Lechuza he cut to pieces Colonel Debos's column and drove its survivors
to the shelter of a gunboat at the shore. At Bahia Honda and Punta Brava
the Spanish were badly beaten. In the Rubi Hills a Spanish force was all
but annihilated, and the commanders began to clamor for reenforcements;
though Maceo had only 11,000 men, and the Spanish had 50,000 along the
trocha to keep him from crossing it. During the summer the campaign
slackened a little, though Maceo won several spirited engagements and
maintained his control of practically all the province excepting parts
of the coast. In the early fall, with his army increased to 20,000 he
resumed the aggressive; using for the first time a dynamite gun which
thoroughly demoralized the Spaniards. Near Pinar del Rio city, at Las
Tumbas Torino, at San Francisco, at Guayabitos and at Vinales, he
defeated the enemy and inflicted heavy losses. The same record was made
early in October at San Felipe, at Tunibar del Torillo, at Manaja, at
Ceja del Negro, and Guamo. A solitary Spanish victory was won at
Guayabitos.

Like the general government at Cubitas, Maceo had headquarters in the
mountains, and there guarded effectively a large and fertile region,
where supplies ample for feeding his army could be produced. He also
conducted workshops for the manufacture of arms and ammunition. Against
this position, in his rage and desperation, Weyler himself in November
led an army of 36,000 picked troops, with six Generals. For