Rafael Portuondo y Tamayo, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, was another young man--born at Santiago in 1867--of distinguished family and high ability. His Assistant Secretary, Fermin Valdes Dominguez, was one of the most eminent physicians of Havana, and was one of those students who, as hitherto related, were falsely accused by the Volunteers of desecrating an officer's grave. He escaped the fate of shooting, which was meted out to one in every five of his comrades, but was sent to life-long penal servitude at Ceuta. After the Treaty of Zanjon he was released and returned to Havana, where he attained great distinction in his profession.
Severa Pina, Secretary of the Treasury, belonged to one of the oldest families of Sancti Spiritus. His Assistant, Dr. Joaquin Castillo Duany, has already been mentioned as one of the organizers of the Cuban Junta in New York. He had served on the United States Naval relief expedition which went to the Arctic regions in quest of the survivors of the _Jeannette_ exploring expedition.
Santiago J. Canizares, Secretary of the Interior, was one of the foremost citizens of Los Remedios, and his Assistant, Carlos Dubois, enjoyed similar rank at Baracoa.
Meantime Martinez Campos was straining every effort to fulfil his promise of victory. At the middle of July he had nearly 40,000 regular infantry, more than 2,500 cavalry, more than 1,000 artillery and engineers, 4,400 civil guards, 2,700 marines, and nearly 1,200 guerrillas. His navy comprised 15 vessels, to which were to be added six which were approaching completion in Spain and 19 which were being purchased of other European nations. Thus his troops outnumbered the Cubans by just about two to one. For the latter aggregated only 24,000, of whom 12,000 were under Maceo in Oriente, 9,000 in Camaguey under Gomez, and 3,000 under Roloff and Sanchez in Santa Clara. In August large reenforcements for Campos arrived from Spain, and they were no longer, as before, half trained boys, but were the very flower of the Spanish army. They brought the total that had been sent to Cuba up to 80,000, of whom 60,000 were regular infantry. However, probably between 18,000 and 20,000 must be subtracted from those figures, for killed, deserted, and died of yellow fever and other diseases. But even if thus reduced to 60,000, the Spanish were still twice as many as the Cubans, who had increased their forces to not more than 30,000.