Page:McClure's Magazine volume 10.djvu/499

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When I first reached the island citizens of the United States (principally naturalized Americans) were being constantly arrested and thrown into cells where they were kept "incomunicado," as the Spaniards term it. "The 'Competitor' Prisoners," as they were called, were then in the cells of the Cabanas fort, having been captured before I reached Cuba. The "Competitor," it will be remembered, was a small schooner which attempted to land a filibustering expedition west of Havana and was captured after most of her passengers had landed, leaving the crew, about five in number, on the vessel. These prisoners were tried by a naval court martial on the 8th of May, 1896, by a court organized to convict, the only testimony being that of the captain of the Spanish gunboat who had taken them