Excellency:—­I have the honor to reply to the three communications of your Excellency, dated to-day, and I am very grateful for the news you give in regard to the generals, chiefs, officers and troops that are your prisoners, and of the good care that you give to the wounded in your possession.  With respect to the wounded, I have no objection to receiving in this place those that your Excellency may willingly deliver me, but I am not authorized by the General-in-Chief to make any exchange, as he has reserved to himself that authority.  Yet I have given him notice of the proposition of your Excellency.

It is useless for me to tell you how grateful I am for the interest that your Excellency has shown for the prisoners and corpse of General Vara del Rey, giving you many thanks for the chivalrous treatment.

     The same reasons that I explained to you yesterday, I have
     to give again to-day—­that this place will not be
     surrendered.

     I am, yours with great respect and consideration,

     (Signed) JOSE TORAL.

     In Santiago de Cuba, July 4, 1898.

     Headquarters Fifth Army Corps,
     Camp near San Juan River, Cuba, July 6, 1898.

     To the Commander-in-Chief, Spanish Forces, Santiago de Cuba.

Sir:—­In view of the events of the 3d instant, I have the honor to lay before your Excellency certain propositions to which, I trust, your Excellency, will give the consideration which, in my judgment, they deserve.

I inclose a bulletin of the engagement of Sunday morning which resulted in the complete destruction of Admiral Cervera’s fleet, the loss of six hundred of his officers and men, and the capture of the remainder.  The Admiral, General Paredes and all others who escaped alive are now prisoners on board the Harvard and St. Louis, and the latter ship, in which are the Admiral, General Paredes and the surviving captains (all except the captain of the Almirante Oquendo, who was slain) has already sailed for the United States.  If desired by you, this may be confirmed by your Excellency sending an officer under a flag of truce to Admiral Sampson, and he can arrange to visit the Harvard, which will not sail until to-morrow, and obtain the details from Spanish officers and men on board that ship.

Our fleet is now perfectly free to act, and I have the honor to state that unless a surrender be arranged by noon of the 9th instant, a bombardment will be begun and continued by the heavy guns of our ships.  The city is within easy range of these guns, the eight-inch being capable of firing 9,500 yards, the thirteen-inch, of course, much farther.  The ships can so lie that with a range of 8,000 yards they can reach the centre of the city.

I make this suggestion of a surrender purely in a humanitarian spirit.  I do not wish to cause the slaughter of any more men,