Captain Fry was shot first, and was the only man, though the soldiers stood but ten feet away, who fell dead at the first volley.  The majority of the poor fellows, as the firing continued, were wounded, and killed as they lay on the ground by the usual Spanish fashion of firing rifles in the mouths of those who were disabled.  The second engineer of the Virginius was among those executed.  He had made a declaration to the Spanish that he had tampered with the engines and cut down the speed of the vessel so that she could be captured, and was marched with the rest to prevent his comrades from knowing that he was to be spared.  He was shot by mistake while making frantic protests and explanations, but, as he was a traitor in one way or the other, his death was the only one of all that was never regretted.

Protests were unheeded.

During all this time the consuls at Santiago were not idle, but they were helpless.  E. G. Schmitt, the American vice-consul, and Theodore Brooks, the British vice-consul, made all sorts of protests that were unavailing.  Schmitt was not permitted to see the prisoners before or after the court-martial, until the very end, when he reached Captain Fry and signed his protest with him.  He was not permitted the use of the telegraph in order to communicate with the government at Washington by way of Kingston, Jamaica.

He wrote repeated notes to Gen. Burriel, the Spanish commander at Santiago, getting no answer to them, until at last an answer came that was more irritating than silence.  Burriel told him that he should have known that the previous day was a day of religious festival, during which he and all his officers were engaged in “meditation of the divine mysteries,” and could not consider temporal affairs.  He also informed the consul that he might be expelled from the island for trying to embroil the United States and Spain in difficulties if he were not careful.

Then came the only bright spot in the whole affair.  News of what was going on reached Jamaica, and the British gunboat Niobe, Captain Sir Lambton Lorraine, left for the scene of massacre, sailing in such a hurry that he left some of the crew ashore.  The Captain landed at Santiago before his ship was anchored, and demanded that the slaughter be stopped instantly.  He declared that he represented the United States as well as England, and that he would bombard the city if there was another American citizen executed.  Ninety-three men were under sentence of death, many of whom were Americans, but the sentences were immediately suspended and the lives were saved.  The Spanish afterward asserted that the executions were stopped because of orders received from Madrid.

The next time Sir Lambton Lorraine was in New York he was offered a reception, which he declined.  He was presented, however, with a silver brick, on which were engraved the words:  “Blood is thicker than water.”  A resolution of thanks to him was laid on the table in the House of Representatives and never passed.