Carpeted with living green and surrounded with
mountains this valley is one of the gems of Cuba.
About ten miles from Matanzas, on the left of the road, stand what
are known as the Breadloaf Mountains. They rise from the plain
like the Spanish peaks in Colorado. These mountains are the
headquarters of General Betancourt, who commands the insurgents in
the province. The Spaniards have offered $1,000 reward for his
head. Several efforts have been made to secure it, but in all
cases the would-be captor has lost his own head.
In accordance with the Weyler edict 11,000 reconcentrados were
herded together at Matanzas, and within a year over 9,000 of them
died in the city. In the Plaza, under the shadow of the Governor's
residence, twenty-three people died from starvation in one day.
The province of Matanzas is not larger in area than the state of
Delaware, yet 55,000 people have perished from starvation and
incident diseases since the order went into effect.
But all the people of Matanzas are not reconcentrados, and even in
the midst of war's alarms they find time for amusement, as the
following description of a carnival ball will prove:
"It was our good fortune to be in Matanzas during the last three
days of the Carnival; and while the whole time was occupied by
noisy processions and grotesque street masqueraders, the crowning
ceremonies were on the last Sunday night.
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