Meanwhile the Cuban forces were slowly degenerating. The Spaniards were well fed, well clothed and well equipped, while the Cuban forces were poorly armed, often hungry, and in torn and ragged garments. The resources of Spain reinforced her army, but the patriots had to rely on chance help that came to them from their American sympathizers. Nothing in their existence was certain, and as the war was prolonged without their gaining a victory which seemed to bring the end nearer, the weaker spirits began to despair and there was dissension and an undercurrent of revolt among the common soldiers. In vain the leaders tried to put heart into their forces, and desertions became alarmingly common. The reductions in numbers compelled the Cuban leaders more and more to resort to guerrilla warfare. This involved deplorable destruction of property, valuable holdings of both loyalists and patriots were rendered valueless, and naturally the morale of both armies suffered from a spirit of lawlessness. By the end of 1871, two thirds of the farms and coffee and sugar plantations in the district of Trinidad were destroyed or abandoned, and the entire central portion of the island had suffered grievously. Valmaseda on December 27, 1871, issued a proclamation to the effect that after the first of the year every prisoner would be shot, and every patriot who delivered himself up would suffer life imprisonment. This applied to both negroes and white men; while all white women captured would be banished, and all negro women would be returned to their owners, and condemned to wear chains for a period of four years. However, prior to that date, only if four days distant, the leaders or any of the soldiers would lay down their arms and announce their allegiance to Spain, they would be received with kindness and clemency. This might have had more effect than it did but for the fact that the Cubans were distrustful of promises of clemency, and feared that if they escaped the vengeance of the government, they would later suffer at the hands of the Volunteers. CHAPTER XV At the beginning of 1872 the storm center of the insurrection moved eastward to Puerto Principe, Santiago and Guantanamo. Engagements in the vicinity of these places had been frequent, and now they were almost daily consisting chiefly of little skirmishes between small forces of men.