d ineffective,
and before Gomez could capture the place strong Spanish reenforcements
arrived and the attempt had to be abandoned. Thereafter Gomez contented
himself with sending several strong bands westward, to conduct guerrilla
warfare against the Spaniards wherever they could, while he himself
remained near Sancti Spiritus, also engaging in irregular operations.

There he was presently menaced by Weyler himself. That formidable foe
had practically achieved the conquest of Pinar del Rio. After Maceo's
death the Cuban forces in that province had largely dispersed, some
abandoning the struggle altogether as hopeless, and others going to the
east, to join themselves with Gomez, Garcia or other surviving leaders.
Only a few roving bands remained. Accordingly Weyler announced that the
western province was pacified. That was sufficiently true; but it was
conspicuously true in the sense expressed by Tacitus, and Byron. They
had made a solitude, and called it peace. Seldom had any comparable
region been so thoroughly devastated and desolated. Then Weyler felt
himself free to lead his army elsewhere.

He set out from Havana with an imposing array of troops, and marched
through the heart of the province and of Matanzas, into Santa Clara. On
the way there was little fighting to do, not even to beat off guerrilla
bands. His attention was given, therefore, to devastating the country,
and to driving the inhabitants into "concentration camps," where they
were doomed to starve to death by thousands. By the end of February he
was triumphantly encamped at the foot of the Guamuhaya Mountains,
between Santa Clara and Trinidad, and had the satisfaction of having
wrought vast destruction upon the property of Cubans and upon the
essential supplies of the Cuban army.

A few weeks later Quintin Bandera with a small force came from Camaguey
and, by wading through the shallow water of the Bay of Sabanabamar, got
around the trocha and joined Gomez. The latter directed him to continue
westward, and to harass the Spaniards with guerrilla attacks. This was
done, and Bandera proceeded as far as Trinidad. Then failing to receive
necessary support he turned back, and on July 4 was killed in a skirmish
at Pelayo. East of the trocha Calixto Garcia continued his formidable
career against such Spanish forces as remained in that region. He
captured Las Tunas after forty-eight hours of almost incessant fighting.
In Matanzas and Havana the revolutionary b