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Cadarso, the Cristina's chief officer, stayed on the ship to the last, and was killed by a shell as he was about to leave her.

The rest of the Spanish vessels had suffered almost as severely. The wooden Castilla was no better than a floating coffin under the fire of the American guns, and she had burned and sunk where she lay. As Lieutenant Fiske remarks, Montojo would have been wiser to dismantle her before the battle, and mount her guns on shore. The whole fleet was practically silenced and wrecked when, at twenty-five minutes to eight, after passing five times along the Spanish line, and gradually drawing closer until he was within two thousand yards of it, Dewey ordered his squadron to cease firing. It had been reported to him that the Olympia's ammunition was running low, only fifteen rounds remaining for her five-inch rapid-fire battery; and he drew out of range, to communicate with his other ships and redistribute his supply of shot and shell. It was soon discovered that the report of a shortage was a mistake, but the commodore remained out in the bay for three hours and a half, receiving reports of casualties-or, rather, of the extraordinary absence of casualties-from his captains, and giving his men time for rest and refreshment. During this interval he sent in a message to the governor-general, informing him that if the city batteries continued to fire the American fleet would bombard Manila. The warning silenced them.

At sixteen minutes past eleven Dewey gave the signal for returning to the attack, and the squadron moved inshore again, the Baltimore now leading the way. Montojo had moved his ships-all that could be moved close to the point of Cavité. Only one of them-the Antonio de Ulloa-was still able to fire a gun. Most of them were in flames, and one of them after another was scuttled and

abandoned. The admiral himself had been carried to a convent in the town. A few more rounds from the American cruisers completed the work of destruction, and at twenty minutes to one, the Spanish ships being wrecked and sunk, the shore batteries silenced, and the arsenal having hauled down its flag, Dewey steamed northward again to Manila,

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Sketch map showing position of the sunken Spanish ships after the battle of Manila Bay, May 1, 1898.

1. Reina Cristina.

2. Don Antonio de Ulloa.

3. Castilla.

4. Velasco.

5. Don Juan de Austria.

6. Isla de Cuba.

7. Isla de Luzon.

8. Marques del Duero.
9. General Lezo.

IO. Isla de Mindanao.

leaving the Petrel-whose light draught enabled her to go into the shallow water inshore to destroy or capture anything that might still remain afloat. Commander Wood carried out his commission effectually, sending his executive officer, Lieutenant Hughes, with a boat's crew to set fire to the scuttled gunboats, while his navigator, Lieutenant Fiske, seized and brought out the tugs Rapido and

Hercules and three steam launches, without any attempt at resistance by the Spanish soldiers and seamen on the beach at Cavité. The coast-survey vessel Manila, which had been run ashore at Bakoor, was afterward hauled off uninjured and added to the list of prizes.

Thus was executed one of the most brilliant and completely successful naval operations in history. The morning's work of Dewey's squadron had obliterated Spain's naval power in the East, and had given him command of the great Philippine archipelago. All this had been done without losing a single man in a battle in which the enemy's loss, as reported to Madrid by Montojo, was three hundred and eighty-one killed and wounded-besides the destruction of a fleet and the ruin of a colonial empire.

In the afternoon, while the victorious squadron was anchored off Manila, which lay at the mercy of its guns, Mr. Rawson Walker, the British consul, came out to the Olympia and requested, on behalf of resident foreigners of twenty-one nationalities, that the city should not be shelled. Dewey consented on certain conditions, which included a supply of coal for his ships, and control of the cable to Hong-Kong. Governor-General Augustin refused his terms, but there was no further firing. A bombardment would have caused frightful destruction, and would have been of no equivalent military advantage, as Dewey could not land a force sufficient to hold the city against the insurgents who would have swarmed in to loot it.

On the following day (May 2d) the commodore moved his ships back to Cavité, where they took up a position which they were to hold for many weeks. On the 3d the arsenal, which the Spaniards had evacuated, was occupied-not in time to prevent some plundering by the rebels, who also despoiled

Capture of
Cavité, May 3.

the neighbouring villages of Cavité and San Roque. On the same day the Baltimore and the Raleigh went over to Corregidor Island and received the surrender of its garrison, which was released on parole.

During the battle, General Augustin had sent to Madrid a vaguely worded despatch which, though it admitted the loss of two ships, gave the impression that the Spaniards had the best of the fight. It created momentary jubilation in the Spanish capital, which was gradually changed to sorrow and indignation as later reports, though still very indefinite, left no doubt of a disaster. On the 3d of May, when the Cortes met, Señor Salmeron, the republican leader, demanded an explanation, and declared that it would be necessary to establish the responsibility attaching to the existing Government. Sagasta replied by appealing to the house to subordinate partisanship to patriotism. Communication between Madrid and Manila had ended on the previous day, when Dewey cut the cable of which Augustin had refused him the use.

In America, meanwhile, there was intense suspense, in the absence of definite news. Dewey's success was not doubted, but no one dreamed that it could have been won without serious loss. Not until May 4th did the commodore send the McCulloch speeding off to Hong-Kong, the nearest cable station, with despatches for the Navy Department, and on the 7th the country was thrilled by his laconic announcement of his magnificent and bloodless victory.

Five more weeks were to pass before a detailed story of the battle was received. By that time an army was on its way across the Pacific to reap for America the fruit of the fleet's great achievement of the 1st of May.

CHAPTER VIII

THE CUBAN BLOCKADE, MAY, 1898

THE Course of events in the chief theatre of war during the months of May and June may be thus briefly summed up:

1. Plans for the immediate invasion of Cuba, which were abandoned or postponed; the blockade, meanwhile, being maintained and extended.

2. The coming of Cervera's fleet, and the movements of the squadrons under Sampson and Schley to intercept it.

3. The "bottling" of Cervera at Santiago, which thereupon became the centre of naval and military operations, and the scene of the chief sea fight and the only land battle of the war.

The first army of invasion was formed by moving men from Camp Thomas, at Chickamauga, to Tampa, where in the early days of May a corps was organized, designated as the Fifth Corps, and commanded by General William R. Shafter-a brigadier in the regular army,* appointed a major-general of volunteers. On May 2d it was decided, at a White House conference-in which General Miles and Admiral Sicard took part, as well as the President and Secretaries Alger and Long-to move forty or fifty thousand men to some point near Havana, and attack or besiege the capital on the land

*The general officers of the regular army, just before the war, were Major-Generals Miles (commanding the army), Merritt, and Brooke Brigadier-Generals Otis, Coppinger, Shafter, Graham, Wade, and Merriam; and the heads of the staff bureaus, Brigadier-Generals Greely (chief signal officer), Breckinridge (inspector-general), Flagler

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