THE FIRST SHOT OF THE WAR. 257 under way, bound for Havana. The flagship New York led the line, followedby the battleships Indiana and It>wa. The gunboats and torpedo boats formed two other lines to east and west of the heavier fighting ships, and gradually increased their distance as they gained the open sea, till by noon the fleet covered many miles from right, to left. It was a fine spring morning, with a light breeze and a long swell upon the otherwise smooth sea.

The monitorsPuritan and Terror, the cruiser gun rang out across the sea. It was the first shot of the war.

A fountainof waterwell aheadofthe Spaniard showed wherethe shot had struck ;but without taking any notice of it, the merchant steamer heldher course. Bang!went another gun from the cruiser, this time aimed so near the bows of the tramp that her forecastle was deluged with the water thrown up by the shot as it bounded along the sea. Such a warning could not be mistaken. The Spanish captain stopped his Marble -lead, the gunboat Helena, and the despatchboat Dolphin were for the present left behind at Key West.

The fleet moved at a very leisurelyrate of speed— about six knots— for Sampson did not mean to close in uponHavana till evening. Meanwhile a sharplook-out waskept for several Spanish ?nerchant ships known to be on their way from the Gulf ports to the Atlantic, which ifintercepted wouldbe valuable prizes. At a quarter to seven, when the fleet was about nineteen miles from Key West, the -moke engines, and within that minutes the, Nashville was close alongside, her crew at quarters and a bristling row of gun- threatening to sink the merchantmanif he tried cape. A boat with an armed crew was lowered away, andin anotherminute Ensign Magruder stood on the deck of the Spaniard.

Iii crew, crowded along the steamer's rail, had watched all these proceeding with blank astonishment. The ship was the Buenaventura, owned , by Messrs. Larriago and Co., of Liverpool and Bilbao, mid commanded by. 'Captain REAR-ADMIRAL SAMPSON Lucarraga, laden with timber and bound from Pascagoula, to the Gulf of Mexico, to Rotterdam.

1 ucarraga told Magruder that he could do what he liked with the ship; .it the same time he declared that Ik had not the remotest idea that his country was already at war with the lI States. When he saw the fleet he thought it was engaged in peaceful manSuvres.

War had been only talked of as a possibility when he left Pascagoula. The ship was now headed for Key West, with a prize crew on board, and the Nashville i" company to act as ort. The gunboat and her prize entered theanchoi g< ateleven o'clock, and the sight-.oi the Stars aud Stripes flying above the Spanish in the first prize of the war was hailed with ■in ihe ships and the shore. All day long the wharves were black with crowds ople, who caipe down to see the captured Spaniard. In the afternoon the Yazln'/Hz ailed :.irejoin the fleet.

Meanwhile \diniral Sampson held his course towards the northern .shores ol Cuba. - In .the steamer was seen coming up on the western horizon. Soon after the steamer camein sight, to the south-west of the fleet, and on a course that would take her diagonally across the line upon which it was moving. From everybridge in the leading ships telescope- were directed at the stranger. She was a large "tramp'' Steamer, with a black hull, her deckhouses and upper works paintedwhite,one funnel,two masts, and the Spanish flag flying at the peak. The gun boat Nashville,which was the nearest warship, immediately slipped out of her station and Ifor the Spaniard, the black smoke pouring from her tall funnels, and the white foam (lying fromher bows as she rushed at full through the bright water.

The merchantman held her course, evidently approaching danger. A group of bluejackets, under the I of a lieutenant, stoo*l .Lboiit one of the quick-fin ows ol Mil gunboat, and when the two vere about hall a mileapart the word was and a jet ol spurted from the Nashville', side, and the sharp report of the 17