| Show alaf I 1 D E 1 0 N special correspondence tho the first sight that greets the trav eler to havana as he comes into port Is morro castle the last thing which he sees on leaving is morro castle and it and its neighbor cabana fort ress are the places that he has in mind to visit whatever other points of interest may have escaped his notice it is a massive piece of work and with which to sink a counter mine his force was much depreciated by hard service and it had consisted ot of train ed soI solders Liers whose places had now been filled by others less experienced but he refused to surrender his chaice and the council put it in his power to do as he thought best best forty four days after the english landed their mines under morros aa P 4 moro mo ro from the sea stands as one of the many links which connect cuba s present with her past anything which has stood in our own country for an entire century Is old I 1 had we anything with the authentic date of 1689 1589 the date which morro bears it seem worthy of the highest veneration it was in the year mentioned that the plans ot of this fortification were traced by the celebrated engineer juan antonelli Anto nelll the high rocky point at the narrow entrance ot the bay was an admirable site for a trong fortification and the one planned by antonelli Anto nelll was brough to a successful completion it Is an ex cellen example of mediaeval fort ress its deep moats blasted out of the solid rock its drawbridge and portcullis the upper works though old are of somewhat more recent date Fin finished thed before 1600 the beav lest iest strain did not come upon it for almost two centuries anthe iff the wall of the upper part near the angle where the sea meets the land Is a tablet whose inscription tells that it was erected to the memory of the gallant capt velasco and marques gonzales who fell in the defense of the castle it was very near here that the eng lish forced their way in and took pos session in fancy the traveler may go back years to that summer which saw the beginning of the most important epoch of cubas cuba s history most im save this last one looking over the parapet in the wall of which the tablet is placed one may see stretched cut before him the scene of the hardest military struggles of the english invasion all of that section speaks of that summer of 1762 to those that have read the history for it was there that siege was laid to the morro the roads from the land ing place more than three miles away was ut slowly and with great labor through a stubborn underbrush and over a rocky soil men tell fell at their work exhausted bv the unusual heat and yellow fever broke out in their walls w re sprung only one had any effect the report of the explosion was heard within and the officer of the day investigated at once and reported to capt velasco that the dam age was so trifling as to be almost none at all and yet this officer mille by name was in no wise in league with the english the eng lish leaders inspected the breach from their vantage point by means of glasses and influenced by the chief engineer came to a conclusion exactly opposed to the one reached by the spanish officer of the day the mine was sprung shortly after 1 0 clock at 4 the english standard floated over the mass of ruins for within it wa wag nothing else capt vel asco was mortally wounded early in the assault on the day of august the conquerors took possession of havana As the traveler wanders about with in the walls he sees dungeons with out any light where he may imagine that prisoners languished although the military prison was in cabana fortress some of the rooms were used as prison cells during the last few months of the american regime now it has only a guard of cuban sol diers and seems to be only a show place and its walls a visitors bool its guns would doubtless give a good account of themselves however should the occasion arise but this does not occur to the visitor as he goes about looking into gloomy rooms where rusty cannon balls are piled up or peering into darker ones from which the hoot of a white owl comes to him when on his way out he goes through the long covered way and crosses the moat by means of the drawbridge from which several boards are missing coming out upon the aill which overlooks the bay and the city beyond he thinks that he has come back from the past to the pres ent tres reyes three kins Is the spec spee fie namo name of the castle although ZA 61 0 la feerra oldest building in travana midst so that at one time 5 sol diers and seamen u were on their backs almost ha t f the entire number still the engi engl sn sh refused to become dig dis cou raged even when one of 0 their bat which had taken men seven days to build was destroyed by fire they continued to push their trenches toward a and planted mines un der its verv walls the governor of the morro was the baal captain don luls luis de velasco about ft horn honi the glory of that cam laign gathers that Is on tho the span ish ade ade ho was the idol of the sol diery tie t ie inspiration of the officers and the admiration of the enemy ha I 1 new cf the preparations rade made by the enemy and anat he had no materials it Is never called that and many do not kno that it has any claim to that name is the generic name of fortresses fort reses situated as it la is on a jutting rock santiago has one san juan has one and other cities also with tu tat t u punta castle guarding the city side of the entrance and planned in the same year 1589 and tha half a mile further in and antedating it by fifty years it forms the motive of he havana escutcheon three castles the key signifies the position of the city |
