THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 304 the sea in vain. It seemed as if Cervera's fleet had vanished into space.

spatches declaring that the Maria Teresa and her consorts were lying safely under the protection of the Cadiz shore batteries. The Spanish censorship Was very strict, and there is little doubt that the misleading despatches were sent on (perhaps, even in part manufactured) by the Cadiz authorities, while all corrections were suppressed.

Then came news from Cadiz, definite,detailed, to all appearance reliable, that the four heavycruisers and the three destroyers,under Cervera and Villa-mil, had steamed into harbour and anchored. Their start for Puerto Rico, it was said, had been a mere feint. Spain was playing a waiting game, and hoping to draw the American squadron across the Atlantic to fight them in European waters, far from their base of supplies. And on this news there arose a sharp controversy as to thesoundness of Spain's naval policy. Some of the experts praised Cervera for his ruse. Others ridiculed the empty parade of going out to sea in fighting Whilst it was still generally believed that Cervera's fleet was lying at Cadiz, there came news from the French island of Martinique which showed that it had eluded the American scouts, and had reached the West Indies without having once been seen by the armed liners and swift cruisers that were scouring the Atlantic in search of it.

U.S. BATTLESHIP "OREGON."

trim only to scuttle back to the nearest home port. The caricaturists of the New York press revelled in ridicule of the "runaway admiral." They represented him as a mischievous urchin, in Spanish costume, playing hide and seek with Uncle Sam, and smiling at his own cleverness inhaving got into a safe hiding-place.

Aster dark on the evening of Wednesday, May nth (the eve of Sampson's bombardment ot San Juan), the Spanish destroyerFuror ran into the harbour of St. Pierre, at Martinique. She had apparently called for orders, for she went out to sea before midnight, after her commander had handed the Spanish consul despatches from the Admiral. So quietlyhad she made her visit to the port that the American agents who were on the spot knew nothing of it till next day. The French authorities, whose sympathy was on the side of Spain, did something to facilitate these communications. By a curious coincidence the cable from Martinique to Santa Lucia, by whichnews wouldhave been sent most directly to the United States, ceased to work at this critical moment, and rumour alleged that the Spaniards hadcut it. There i=, Never did baseless rumourobtain such general credence as this story of Cervera's return to Cadiz. How it was startedin the first instance is not quite clear. One version of the matter is that a very inexpertemissary of the "yellow" press, on reaching Cadiz, mistook some of the steamers and torpedo boats that were in the harbour for Cervera's squadron. One would have thought that such a mistake would have been immediately rectified ;but even in European papers there appeared definite de-