ands were badly broken up by
the Spaniards, and they seemed to lack efficient leadership. Their
leader, General Lacret, fell into an unfortunate controversy with Gomez
over his treatment of Cubans who disregarded government orders,
especially in their attitude toward the Spaniards. Gomez, remorseless,
would have had them shot as traitors, but Lacret insisted upon more
lenient treatment of them, realizing that they were almost literally
"between the devil and the deep sea" and were therefore entitled to
sympathetic consideration. The outcome was that Gomez relieved Lacret of
his command and appointed Alexander Rodriguez in his place, in Matanzas.
That officer failed to command the loyalty of his troops, and the result
was that the latter generally deserted and dispersed. Mayia Rodriguez
was then ordered to the scene, but was unable to collect a sufficient
force, and remained in Santa Clara, hemmed in by the Spanish. General
Jose Maria Aguirre, who died in December, 1896, was succeeded in command
in the Province of Havana by Nestor Aranguren, who performed some
creditable minor operations, particularly against Spanish railroad
communications, but achieved nothing of real importance. His lieutenant,
General Adolfo Castillo, in the southern part of the province, was
killed in battle, in September, and was succeeded by Juan Delgado. The
Spanish General Parrado in October marched without opposition as far as
Los Palos, and there received the surrender of a small Cuban band; and
in November General Pando with a powerful army made his way without
serious opposition from Havana to the western part of Oriente.

It was during this year that Weyler's ever infamous "concentration"
policy, which was really a policy of extermination, reached its infernal
climax and was then repudiated and abandoned. This system, as already
related, was decreed on October 21, 1896. It required all Cubans, men,
women and children, to leave their homes in the rural regions and enter
concentration camps. These were simply huge pens, enclosed with fences
and barbed wire and guarded by Spanish soldiers. There the hapless
prisoners were huddled together, without shelter from the elements, and
with little or no food save such as could be procured by stealth. There
was none to be had within the enclosures, of course, and the prisoners
could not go out to get any, even if any was to be found in the
devastated country around them. Their friends outside seldom dar