347 EXPERT RIDING by A MEMBER Ot THE NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS, CHAPTER XXV THE LANDING AND THE FIRST FIGHT T>HE morning of June 22nd brokeclear and fine, with very little surf alongthe shore. It was ideal weatherfor the landing. All alongthecoast for mileswestand east ofSantiago Americanbattleships andcruisers werebombarding everylikely landing-place, while on the land side here and there the Cuban bands came down and opened fire on the Spanish outposts. To the westward of Santiago the battleship Texas, the auxiliary cruisers Scorpion and Vixen,and a number of colliers (meant to represent transports), made a feint against Punta Cabrera and CabanasBay. The Cubangeneral, Rabi, was to have co-operated with 2,000 men, making an attack on the Spanish blockhouses with a view to inducing General Linares to divert a strong force to the west of Santiago, while the real attack was being made to the eastward. The Texas shelled the blockhouse at Mazamorra near Cabanas,but Rabi only put in an appearance with 200 men instead of 2,000, and Colonel Aldea, who held Punta Cabrera with a few companies of the Spanish " Regiment of Asia," was so little impressed that he did not signal to Santiago for help. The garrison of the city remained quietly within its linesall day.

Resides bombarding Cabanas the Texas was gagedwith the Socapabattery, andalmost the last shot fired from the shore before she drew off hit the battleship, killing one manand woundingeight. It was a six-inch shell fromone of the Hontoriaguns. It came through the side twenty feet from the bow, and exploded well inside the ship.

To the eastward of Santiago Aguadores was bombarded by theGloucesterandEagle;Juragua and the neighbouring village of Siboney, by the Bancroft, Helena and Hornet: andDaiquiri, by the New Orleans. The transports had gone away to the eastward in the night, and were steaming in towards Daiquiri during the early part of the bombardment. At nine o'clock the cruisers Machias, Detroit and Suwanee, and the gunboat Wasp, joined the New Orleans, and a rain of shells was sent pouring into the wooded slope-above Daiquiri and into the little village. Soon flames and smoke rose from some of the houses. The Spaniards had fired the village before abandoningit. There were only a handful of them in the place, not more than a company of infantry. They left the pier intact.no explosives were available for its destruction,and they also evacuated a blockhouse on the hill above the place. Here they were exchanging distant long-range rifle fire with the Cuban guerillas who were working up the other side oi the hill,but naturally not anxious to come too close to the crest while the bombardment was still in progn Not a single shot had replied to the fire of the warships, and at half-past nine it was believed that the way was clear for the landing. The