197 CHAPTER II.

THE MYSTERY OF THE EXPLOSION.

THE death-rollof the Maine is a long list. On that fatal Thursday evening there were 354 officers and men on board of her. Twenty-four officers and seventy-seven men were saved, many of them more or less injured by the explosion. Twoofficers and :;i men lost their lives, either killed on the spot or drowned, or dying of their wounds within a few hours of the disaster.

On the morrowHavana presented the appearanceof a cityinmourning.

Harbour,and the first impulse was to accept the theory thattheir deathswere due to a murderous act of treachery. Some of the less responsible newspapers, eager for a new sensation, adopted this theory when the only evidence in support of it was the merest conjecture. One of them distinguished itself by offering thousands of dollars for proof of the alleged crime. But, to the credit of the American people and of the higher class of journals in their piess, it must be said that a notable The Exchange was closed. The theatres announced that there would be no performance that evening. Many shops had their shutters up, and business as well as pleasure was at a standstill. Flags flew half-mast high from the Governor-General'spalace, the principal buildings, and the ships in the harbour. Marshal Blanco, thegovernmentandmunicipal authorities, " the l consuls, organised bodies ofall sorts,and the citizens generally," expressed their sorrow by ges to Consul-Genenumberof prominent men and some of the bestand most enterprising of the newspapers re-echoed Sigsbee's and Lee's appeal for a suspension of judgment, and met the ery for immediate war with Spain by a protestagainst hasty action of any kind in so grave a crisis. Expert opinion at the outset was that the Maine, had probably been destroyed bytheaccidentalexplosion of her own magazines. Many naval officers, and among them several of the officers of the Manic i stated that this ral Lee and Captain Sigsbee. Such is Lee's own testimony. The stories in some of the newspapers that the Havanese openly rejoiced at the disaster are thus contradicted by the best authority on the subject.

The expression of grief for the loss of the and her gallant crew was world-wide. At Washington every hour brought telegrams of sympathy to the Government,many of which had come across the Atlantic. One of the first was from Queen Victoria, another came from I Princess of Wales, others from ernments and Admiralties,and £ was represented by a message from the charge of her Embassy, and another from the Govern ral of Cuba. Throughout the United States opinion was from the first deeply agitated. Hundredsof homes were in mourning for relations who had lost their lives in Ha was their view, though at the same time they said that it was a mystery to them how the magazines could have been ignited, considering laborate precautions taken to prevent anything of the kind occurring. But in such a crisis it was only to be expected that the calmer view should be the less popular, and from the first there was a growing outcry against " Spanish treachery," a rising demand for vengeance.

The funeral of the victims took place at Havana on the Thursday after the explosion. Including those who had died in the hospitals and the bodies so far recovered from the wreck, i more than i:o coffins. In the long procession there were gnards of honour ot Spanish men-of-war's men, soldiers and volunteers, Marshal Blanco'.; staff, and the leading men of the Havana municipality. Densecrowds