THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 194 given the American officers a cordial welcome, and they had been hospitably entertained by their comrades of the Spanish navy on board the cruiser Alfonso XII. It is true that there had been somehostile mutterings against them on the part of those obstinate adherents of the old regime who saw in the Spanish concessions to Cuba a surrender to America, and regarded the presence of the Maine at Havana as an encouragement to the rebels, and it is even said that Captain Sigsbee, the commander of the cruiser, had received some threatening letters. But the menaces of the Spanish malcontents were regarded as of no practical importance in the improved state of the relations betweenthe two countries;andas for theletters, they were laughed at as the work of some halfwitted"crank" who had neither the power nor the willfordoing seriousmischief. At the same time, the usual precautions were taken which are observed on board of every warship even in time of peace and in a friendly port— precautions not so much against hostile attack as unforeseen accident.

been visiting friends on board the City of Washington, but by half-past nine they had all returned on board.

Ten minutes later a roar like thunder rolled across thebay, and the city trembledas with an earthquake shock. For a moment the sky was red with leaping flame, and then all was dark, for everylamp hadbeen extinguished. Windows fell Clattering in fragments on the pavement, doors were burst open, broken telegraph wires droppedinto the streets, into which the startled people came rushing from theirhouses. There were the wildest rumours: " The arsenal has beenblownup!" " The powdermagazinesat the end of the bay have exploded!""The American and the Spanish ships have opened fire upon each other!" The people hurried tothe wharves looking out upon the harbour, and then there was no doubt as to what had happened. A mass of flames rapidly rising from thefore part of theMaine showed the wrecked warship, with a crowd of boats busy saving wounded and drowning men from amidst the floating debris that surroundedher. The eveningof Tuesday,February 15th, was calm and warm. There was hardly a breath of wind to ripple the waters of the land-locked harbour,and with this stillness of the air there was a dull, oppressive sense of heat in the gathering tropical night. Work had ceased at sunset alongthe wharvesof the city, and only a few boats were moving about the bay, with drooping sails and crews pulling at the oars. It was a dark moonless night, and only their lights showed the positions of the large ships that swung slowly at their moorings between the town and the northern forts. The Maine was attached tooneof the harbour buoys"northeast of the arsenal. Close to her on one side lay the Alfonso XII, and on the other an American passenger liner, the City of Washington. At eight o'clock the officer of the watch on boardthe Maine had gone his rounds and found all in good order. The magazines werelocked,and the keys were inhis possession. There was no fire in the forward furnaces, but further astern there was steam up in some of the smaller boilers which kept the engines going that supplied the electric light. At nine most of the crew were in their hammocks. The watch on deck was under the command of Lieutenant Blandin. Most of the other officers were chatting together in the ward-room. Captain Sigsbee wasin his cabin writing letters.

Earlier in the evening some of the officers had There had been two explosions, coming so swiftly one upon the other that to many there seemed to be only one. Captain Sigsbee was writing at his desk when he heard and felt the first. It was as if the ship's greatbarbette guns had been fired altogether. As he dashed out on deck there came the second explosion, and theheavier ofthe two. A volcano of flame wassweeping skyward from the fore partof the doomedwarship— a great fanlike blaze ot fierce yellow fire, with here and there dull, thick splashes of crimson; aboveit was a pall of black smoke, and in the heart of the fire,indistinctly seen,were flying fragments of wreckage. Such is the description by a startled spectator who saw the terrible sight from a ship in the bay. Sigsbee was met by his officers comingup from the ward-room. They had sprung from their seats at the first explosion. One of them told the Commission of Enquiry that between the first and the second explosions there was just time for him to pass quickly from one end to theother of an eight-foot table. So far noneof the officers had been killed or even seriously hurt. Their quarters were in the after part of the ship, and it was away towards the bowthat the fearful force so suddenlylet loosewas tearing and crushing everything to pieces. Lieutenant Blandin, the officer of the watch, was hit on the head by a piece of falling metal, but only slirrhtlv hurt. His comrade,LieutenantJei