Show 3IONTES STATEMENT Cubans Expect an Important Battle This Week TAMPA Fla April 20Don Antonio Montes commander of the Spanish gunboat Alberta in his official rport to the general of marines in Havana states On the morning of the 10th I sailed in Cananas I was told by the commander of the fort that the Alfonso Al-fonso XHI batallion under command of Colonel Devos had left the day before in combination with other forces to attack Maceo but finding themselves surrounded by 5000 insurgents had retreated re-treated with orderly fighting for seven hours until they reached the storehouses store-houses on the wharf of the San Claudio Clau-dio estate where they had fortified I themselves Sending his wounded one officer and thirteen soldiers on board the schooner Condor lying at the wharf without delay and at full speed we started for that place Shortly before arriving there we saw a large group of insurgents on the surrounding surround-ing hills firing on the schooner at the wharf Our ARRIVAL WAS TIMELY for our fire dispersed the fast gathering gather-ing insurgents Colonel Devos instructed in-structed me to take twenty soldiers to Bramales to procure ammunition On my way there I fired upon San Augustine Augus-tine estate captured by the insurgents I returned with the ammunition The insurgents had reappeared on the hills and we again dispersed them with a few cannon shots I was then decided that all impediments and 170 cavalry horses should be shipped on the schooners in the harbor While these were being loaded I protected them from the insurgents by the constant con-stant use 61 artillery ably assisted by the fort About daylight Colonel Inclar arrived with reinforcements We then decided i was safe to unload This report appeared in La Lachue April 16 and illustrates the perilous positions po-sitions of the fragments of the Spanish Span-ish forces which participated in the battre of La Lachue The Cubans expect an important battle bat-tle this week owing to the concentration concen-tration of Jose and Antonio Maceos forces on directly opposite sides of the trocha |