The enemy's forces very near city; ours extended fourteen kilometres (14,000 yards). Our troops exhausted and sickly in an alarming proportion. Cannot be brought to the hospital--needing them in trenches. Cattle without fodder or hay. Fearful storm of rain, which has been pouring continuously for past twenty-four hours. Soldiers without permanent shelter. Their only food rice, and not much of that. They have no way of changing or drying their clothing. Our losses were very heavy--many chiefs and officers among the dead, wounded and sick. Their absence deprives the forces of their leaders in this very critical moment. Under these conditions it is impossible to open a breach on the enemy, because it would take a third of our men who cannot go out, and whom the enemy would decimate. The result would be a terrible disaster, without obtaining, as you desire, the salvation of eleven maimed battalions. To make a sortie protected by the division at Holguin, it is necessary to attack the enemy's lines simultaneously, and the forces of Holguin cannot come here except after many long days' marching. Impossible for them to transport rations. Unfortunately, the situation is desperate. The surrender is imminent, otherwise we will only gain time to prolong our agony. The sacrifice would be sterile, and the men understand this. With his lines so near us, the enemy will annihilate us without exposing his own, as he did yesterday, bombarding by land elevations without our being able to discover their batteries, and by sea the fleet has a perfect knowledge of the place, and bombards with a mathematical accuracy. Santiago is no Gerona, a walled city, part of the mother country, and defended inch by inch by her own people without distinction--old men and women who helped with their lives, moved by the holy idea of freedom, and with the hope of help, which they received. Here I am alone. All the people have fled, even those holding public offices, almost without exception. Only the priests remain, and they wish to leave the city to-day, headed by their archbishop. These defenders do not start now a campaign full of enthusiasm and energy, but for three years they have been fighting the climate, privations and fatigue, and now they have to confront this critical situation when they have no enthusiasm or physical strength. They have no ideals, because they defend the property of people who have deserted them and those who are the allies of the American forces.