THE SPANISH-AiMERICAN WAR. 414 who was present," there was a shout from the rear. Twomenon horseback dashed into view, frantically waving their arms. The men at the guns waited. The horsemen were Signal-Lieutenant McLaughlin and an orderly. They had ridden hard from the end of the military wire.

The order to commence firing had been given when the lieutenant and orderly reached the guns. 'Cease action !'shouted the lieutenant. Then to the wondering artillerymen he explainedthat the war was over. A message had been received from General Miles by General Brooke directing that allhostile military operations should be stopped. The Pennsylvanians, officers and men,howledwithdisgust, and when the lieutenant delivered GeneralBrooke's order that theyshouldreturn to the camp at Guayama they sullenly wheeled the guns about and went grumbling to the rear." If this description is literally true it says more for the zeal than for the soldierlydiscipline of the volunteer gunners.

reported upon very unfavourably. The men, it was said, straggled miles behind the column. Several of its officers were called upon to resign their commissions.

Before concluding the story of the war by telling howManila was taken, it may be well to note here that in Cuba as in Puerto Rico the news of the signing of the peace preliminaries put an end indramatic fashion to more thanone engagement on the 12th and 13th of August.

On themorningof the 12th the last shots were fired from theMorro batteries at Havana. The San Francisco, acting as the flagship of the blockading squadron, had drifted too close in. The batteries openedon her, and, as she turned to regain .her station, a heavy shell from the Morro came through her stern, burst in the captain's cabin, and completely wrecked it. Happily there was no one in the cabin at the ,time. At ManzanillotheAmerican cruisers and gunboats blockading the port bombarded the place and engaged the shore batteries on the afternoon of the same day. On the 13th they resumed the attack. It had not gone on verylong whena white flag washoisted on shore. It was naturally supposed the Spaniards had surrendered, but when an American officer went in to arrange terms, he was shown a telegram from General Shafter,stating that the war was over andall hostilities must cease. Onthe same day at Caibarien, on the coast of the Santa Clara province, the cruiserMangrove wascovering the landing of a Cuban expedition and engaging a couple of Spanish gunboats and a battery on shore. Suddenly the Spanish sire ceased, up went the white flag on the ships and on shore, and a boat pulled out to the cruiser with the news that the war had ended. The fall of Santiago had practically decided the fight for Cuba. Havana, with its miles of trenches, its strong sea-forts, and its large garrison, which,it had been expected, would be the scene of the final struggle, had hardly seen the flash of an enemy's gun.

So ended the campaign of Puerto Rico. It has been spoken of as a splendid example of careful organisation and scientific generalship. Itis difficult to accept this view. There might have been a little more dash and energyin the advance without sacrificing any of the science. The armyhad landedon the 25th of July. On August 12th,after eighteendaysof campaigning, the main column was not thirty miles inland. Some detachments of General Machias's small army had held the invaders in check by the mere report of the strength of the advanced position at Aibonito, which had not even been attacked. The Americans were only reconnoitring it when the end came. They were a, good fifty miles from San Juan. The actions of the campaign were really small skirmishes. With the overwhelming force at his disposal, Miles ought to have been before San Juan in the second week of August. The volunteer battalionshad been steady and eager in action, but some of themhad shown a lackof discipline incamp and on the march. One regiment was