2-6 ,'HE U.S. BATTLESHIP, " INDIANA."

CHAPTER XIII THE BLOCKADE OF CUBA NEITHER exciting nor romantic was the first act of war with which the strugglebetween the United States and Spain began. At New Orleans the steamship Cataluna was taking on board a consignment of a thousandAmerican mules,purchasedforMarshal Bianco's army in Cuba. On the afternoon of April 21st, news having arrived of the rupture of diplomatic relations, the port authorities laid an embargo on the steamer and seized the mules, despite the protests of the captain and the Spanish agents, who argued, without effect, that war had not yet begun.

the blockade of Cuba would be proclaimed by the President, and the fleet would proceed to makeit effective.

Wars begin as a rule nowadays without the formaldeclaration that was once held to be the necessary legal warrant for hostile action. In this case the American ultimatum had fixed noonon Saturday, the 23rd, as the limit of time allowedfor the Spanish reply ;but the summary dismissal ofGeneral Woodford from Madrid was held to justify immediate hostilities, and on Friday, the 22nd, the President issued, not a declaration of war, but a proclamation of the blockade of Western Cuba. At Key West that same afternoon all was excitement. Ship after ship of Sampson's fleet hauled out of the inner anchorage, and by four o'clock the greater part of the squadron was mooredin line wellout to seaward, waiting for the ships from the Dry Tortugas to join. The New York, the powerful armoured cruiser which was to act as flagship, had hoisted the flag of a rear-admiral, indicating the promotion of Commodore Sampson. He and his fleet had been waiting for weeks for the order to sail, and it was still withheld for a few hours. Next day The blockaded coast was to extend from the port of Cardenas,by Havana and Bahai Honda, to Cienfuegos on the south shore of Cuba. Neutral vessels lying in any of those ports were to be given thirty days to clear. Neutrals approaching them in ignorance of the existence of blockade were to be warned off, and the warning was to be endorsed on the ships papers. If, after that, they attempted to pass the blockade they were to be liable to capture.

At dawn on the Friday morning the fle<