"The horses stand with swollen legs far apart, instinctively to prevent a fall. Once down, they know they never can get up. Their heads hang low and their breathing comes in a whistle from parched lungs through a long, dry throat and dusty mouth. There is an occasional form in the black galleys. It is some trooper, his big arms around the neck of his beloved dying mount, with tears in his eyes, but petting and talking to the animal as if it understood. Then ropes over blocks begin to draw buckets of water from sixty feet below. Immediately each horse or mule has its draught, it is bathed in perspiration, and skin dry and shriveled becomes soft and pliable. One can feel in the dark, whether a horse has been missed or not. "There is a delay and an anxious inquiry from above: 'What's the matter?' 'Haul away,' is the response, and the bucket comes heavy this time. Oh, it's only a man, stark naked, fainting, with a rope beneath his arms, and head away to one side. 'Hospital case, overcome, haul away,' and another bucket swings upward." Of course the objective point of the whole campaign was the capital, San Juan, on the northeastern coast of the island. Nevertheless the troops were mostly landed on the southern coast not far from the southwestern corner. The plan was to drive all the Spanish troops upon the island into San Juan, where they could be captured upon the surrender of that city. The Spaniards abandoned precipitately the whole southern coast line, and this seemed to promise an easy march for the Americans across Porto Rico. But this was not exactly the case, as we shall proceed to demonstrate. There were several causes why the Spaniards fled before the invading Americans. One was that in the beginning the Spanish forces, from lack of knowledge as to where the Americans would land, were widely scattered. By retreating, the coast garrisons were brought together in bodies of more or less magnitude. More than this in the interior could be found stronger positions for defense, and there only land forces would have to be dealt with. It is probable that the Spaniards in Porto Rico, knowing as they must have, that the war was virtually over, hoped by a show of resistance at the end to come out with a certain degree of credit, and had resolved to give up the fight only when they received an order to do so from Madrid. At all events, the Spanish troops disputed the American advance at several points. At Fajardo the American forces raised the Stars and Stripes, but the Spaniards, several hundred in number, pulled it down and even sought to drive away the landing party that held the lighthouse on the shore. This attempt was most manifestly absurd, as in the harbor was a squadron, consisting of the monitor Amphitrite, the protected cruiser Cincinnati and the Leyden. No time was lost in landing men to support the lighthouse force, and to open fire from the ships. The Spaniards were driven back and suffered much from their foolish temerity.