THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 260 boat, the Bailev,recently purchasedinEngland, waslying at Falmouth. She had not been able to obtain a crew before the proclamation was issued; and on an attempt being made to ship some English seamen to carry her to America, theport authorities seized her, and she waslaid up in the harbour tillthe end of the war. It is curious that the rules adopted at the settlement of the Alabama dispute were thus put in force for the first time to stop the fitting out of a United States war vessel.

it may be noted here that on Saturday, April 23rd, the President called out,by proclan 100,000 volunteers;and the concentration of a large volunteer army at Chickamauga in Tennessee at once began. These movements, and the preparations for the invasion of Cuba, will be relatedindetail when themilitary operations are dealt with. At this stage of our story it makes the narrative clearer if we confine our attentionto the navalaspect of the war.

For the first week the Spanish Atlantic THE FORTS AND HARBOUR OF MATAN'ZAS.

On the day whenthe war began the American liner Paris,one of the auxiliary cruisers, was at Southampton, getting ready for her return voyage to New York, and as yet unarmed. She startednext day with a number of passengerson board. Rumour said that there were Spanish torpedo boats waiting for her in the Channel, and for some days there were the wildest reports as to her fate. But she crept along the south coast of Ireland,ready, if challenged, to slip into neutral waters, and then took a northerly course across the Atlantic, and reached New York in safety, without having once seen an enemy. In order to keep the sequenceof events clear, squadron remained at St. Vincent in the De Verde Islands, and the United States Pacific squadron staved in .Mirs Bay on the Chinese coast, opposite to Hong Kong. From Cuba there came only news of insignificant captures of merchant ships by the blockading squadron. The newspapers had led the public in the United States to believe that the rupture of negotiations would be immediately followed by an attack on Havana. But Admiral Sampson knew better than to engage his fleet prematurely with the formidable batteriesthat guarded the narrow entrance, which was known to be further protected b\ a svsteni of mines. Even