On August 16, in obedience to orders from Army Headquarters, General Schwan left the bulk of his troops in the positions they had respectively occupied at the time of the receipt of the truce, and, accompanied by the artillery, returned to Mayaguez. The people of this city had not yet recovered from the ferment into which they had been thrown by our advent, and went about in a state of tremulous titillation, expecting I know not what. At any rate, it did not seem to arrive; and after a day or two had passed without any sign of fell intent upon our part the merchants allowed themselves to be coaxed back into their places of business. The cafés were once more thronged. Semi-weekly concerts were given in the Plaza Principal by the band of the Eleventh Infantry and the Banda del Bomberos, in alternation. Balls, dinner-parties, and flirtations resumed their interrupted course, gathering new zest and brilliancy from the foreign element within the gates. All the Americans began to study Spanish, and all the Puerto Ricans to study English, without particularly gratifying results on either side. Cocking-mains, local games of chance, and more hectic immoralities were set forth for the delectation of the private soldiers; while I have personal knowledge of at least one quasi-clandestine bullfight, that may be best described as a furtive fizzle. Strict measures were taken by the brigade commander to prevent anything resembling disorderly conduct among his men, and though these laurel-crowned heroes, under the influence of a wonderfully cheap rum, were seized at odd moments with an evident desire to start the war all over again, there was not much difficulty encountered in maintaining a degree of decorum that was highly satisfactory. The sanitation of the municipality was rigorously inquired into, and regulated; but it is only justice to the residents of Mayaguez to say that little reform was necessary in this regard, as the current statistics of mortality and disease amply proved. Of the few changes made, however, one may be specifically mentioned. [Illustration: A Ruined Church along our Line of March.] [Illustration: A Puerto Rican Laundry.]