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Show 1 I (Special Corre'ixitulence.) The first sight that greets the traveler trav-eler to Havana as he conies Into port la Morro Castle; the last thing which he sees on leaving Is Morro Csstlo, and It and lis neighbor Cabana Fortress Fort-ress aro the places that he baa In mind to visit, whatever other points of Interest may havo escaped his notice. It Is a msialve piece of work, and llh whirl, to sink a countermine; hts force was much depreelated by hard service, and It had consisted of trained train-ed sob.lera. whose places had now been tilled by others less experienced. Hut he refused to surrender hla charge, and tl o council put It In hla power lo do as he thought best. Forty four days after the F.ngllsh landed their mines under Morro s 'TrT"rj .. ait w.. Morro from the Sea stands as one of the many links which connect Cuba's presonl with ber past. Anything which hat stood In our own country for an entire century Is old; had we anything with the authentic date of ldhW tho date which Morro bears It would teem worthy of the highest veneration. It waa In the year mentioned that the plana of this formication wore traced by the celebrated cele-brated engineer Juan Antonelll. The high rocky point at the narrow entrance of the bay waa an admirable site for a strong formication, and the one planned by Antonelll waa brough. to a successful completion. It Is an excellent example of mediaeval fortress, fort-ress, with Its deep moats blasted out of the solid rock. Its drawbridge and portcullis; tho upper works, though old, are of at mowhet more recont date. Finished before 1(100, the heaviest heav-iest strain did not come upon It for almost two cimturlna. lu the wall of the upper part, near the angle whore the Boa meets tho land, la a tablet whose Inscription tells that It was eroded to the memory of the gallant Capt. Velusco and Marquee Oonznlet, who fell In tho defense of the caatlt; It waa very near here that tho Kit-llsh Kit-llsh forced their way In and took sesalon. In fancy the traveler may go bark 140 yeara to thnt summer which sew the beginning of the most Important eKch of Culia'a history most Important Im-portant save this last one. looklnc over the parapet In the wall of whlii the tablet la placed, one may see stretched out before him the scene ol the hardest military atritgglea of the English Invasions All of that sect lee .peaks of that summer of 1702 to those that have read the history, for It was there that tlcgo waa laid Is the Morro. The roads from the landing land-ing place, more than throe mllea twsr, was jut siowly and with great labor through a stubborn underbrush and over a rocky soil. Men fell at their work, exhausted by the unusual best, and yellow fever broke out In tholr Willi w jre 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 re-ported to Capt. Velasco that the damage dam-age was so trifling as to be almost none at all. And yet this officer. Mills by name, wan In no wise In league with the English. The Eng-llsh Eng-llsh leaders Inspected the bresch from their vsntage polut by means of guwscs, snd. Influenced by the chief engineer, csme to a conclusion exactly opposed tn the one reached by the Sisinlsh offlcor of the day. The mine waa sprung shortly after 1 o'clock at 4 tho English etnndard floated ovor the mass of ruins, for within It was nothing else. Capt. Vol-aico Vol-aico was mortally wounded early In the assault. On the 14th day of August the conquerors took possession of Havana. As the traveler wanders about within with-in the walla ho sees dungeons with i.ot any light, whoro he may Imagine that prisoners languished, although the military prison waa In Cabana fortress Some of the rooms wore used as prison cells during the last few months of the Amerlcsn regime. Now, It tins only a guard of Cuban soldiers, sol-diers, and seems to be only a showpiece, show-piece, and Ita walla a visitors' book. Its guns would doubtless give a good account of themselves. however, should the occsslon arise Hut this does not occur to tho visitor as he goes about looking Into gloomy rooms where rusty crunon balls are plied up or peering Into darker ones from which tho hoot of a whlto owl comes to him. When on his way out he goes through the long coverod wsy snd crosses the moat by means of the drawbridge, from which several boards are missing coming out upon the Jill which overlooks the bsy and the city beyond, he thinks that he has come back from the paal to the present pres-ent "Tres Mayes" (Three Klnrf) Is the specific namo of the castle, although i v. i, V P - - .! ILs Fuerra, Olitest Ttullitlnf In Havana. midst, so that at one time t.noo soldiers sol-diers and seamen were on their barha. almoat half the entire number. Still the English refused to become discouraged, dis-couraged, even when one of their batteries, bat-teries, which had taken Ann men seven days tn build, waa destroyed by fire. They continued lo push tholr trenches toward asorro snd planted mines under un-der Its very walls. The governor of the Morro waa the naval captain Don Luis de Velasco. about whom the fclory of that cam palgn gathera that Is. on tho Spanish Span-ish side. Ho waa the Idol of tho soldiery, sol-diery, tlie Inspiration of tho ufllcers, ami the admiration of the enemy ll-i knew ef His preparations n'Sile by tlm enemy, and tuat he hud .m materlnls It Is nevei called that, and many do not know thst- It has any claim to that name "Mi.rro" la the generic name of fortresses situated as It Is on a Jutting rock. Santiago Las one, San Juan oas one, and other c'tles also With tit Punta Castle guarding the city side of the entrance, and planned In tho same year HiHD. and Ihi Fuuna, hair a mile further In and antedating It by fifty yeara, II forms the motive of he Havana escutclieon, three castlee; the key signifies the position of the city. |