THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 306 where he hoped to obtain coal and other supplies. to beapproaching Trinidad. This added to the anxiety of the situation, when once more touch waslost of the Spanish squadron. Nothing was seen of it by the cruisers holding the "passages" or straits between the large islands, and the cruisers did not findit in the Caribbean Sea. The fact was that Cervera had altered his course after dark on the Thursday, and leaving the Terror at Martinique, he began to steer west, making for the Dutch island of Curacoa, near the mainland, on the south side of the Caribbean Sea. Two, perhaps four, transports laden with supplies were intended to join him in that neighbourhood. On the Saturday the Injanta Maria Teresa and the Vizcaya entered the port. Two other cruisers and two of the destroyers remained outside. The Dutch Santiago is noted in the recent history of Cuba as the scene of the Virginias massacre. There was a certain dramatic fitness in thefate that now made it the centre of the decisive struggle between the Spanish rulers of the islandand the countrymenof those who manned the Virginius. In the days of the great naval war between France and England it was a frequent anchoring place for our West Indian squadrons. The first Spanish stronghold in the island,it wasnow to see the last fight for Spain inCuba.

The harbouris analmostland-locked armofthe sea, surrounded by wooded hills. The old city at the head of thebay, once the capitalofCuba, Sketch. iv\o.p sUovi.r.Oj tYis. cou.i-je ot Cevveva.'s Sauft.rf.roK.

authorities insisted on the neutrality proclamation being rigidly observed, and requested Cervera to leave the harbour in twenty-four hours. His colliers had not joined him, and their failure to keep the rendezvous, together with the unfriendliness of the Dutch Governor, seriously hampered his plans. On the Sunday eveninghe put to sea again, and oncemore was lost to sight. The failure of the United States cruisers to gain and keep touch with him was manifest, and very seriously embarrassed the authorities at Washington in their general direction ot the campaign.

is five miles from the opensea. Ithad no walls, and its only permanent fortification was an old battery. But its defences clustered miles off round the narrow entrance to the harbour, where another Morro Castle,named like those at Havana and San Juan, and dating from the earlier days of Spanish rule, had been strengthenedby somemodernbatteries, themost powerfulbeing armed from a dismantled cruiser, the Reina Mercedes. She was anchored near the entrance as a floating battery. Her starboard battery coveredthe inner end of the strait. She could not be employed at sea, lor her engines were in disrepair and her boilers worn out. The guns of her port battery had been mountedin the new works.

Meanwhile,Cervera's squadron, short of coal and husbanding its resources by steaming at a very easyrate, was making for the east end of Cuba. The Admiralhad given up the idea of a dash for either San Juan or Havana. Steaming north-west from Curacoa,he passed(out of sight of land) through the wide Jamaica channel between the island and the south-west cape of Hayti. His object was to reach and take shelter in the harbour of Santiago de Cuba, This entrance to Santiago will be the scene of so much that follows that it may be well to describe it more in detail, and no better description can be found than that of an English sailor who saw much of it in the days of the old fights between French and British wooden walls. In one of the best of his sea stories, "Tom