concealed in the brush. Our ships were powerless to defend, because our men were within thirty yards of the beach, and the guns of the launches were inadequate to the work. The Spaniards were rapidly increasing in numbers, and at the last it was estimated that a thousand of them were furiously pumping their Mausers at our boats. The water about the cutters was splashed as in a tropical rain-storm, and Lieutenant Winslow, having cut two of the cables, reluctantly left the third, and took his men out of range.

Then the Windom went in to avenge our losses. The Spaniards fled to a nearby lighthouse for shelter, but found it a hot corner. A four-inch shell toppled it over, and sent them in a wild cross-country race.

The official report gave our loss as one killed -Patrick Regan-with two-H. W. Kuchneister and Ernest Suntzenich, mortally wounded, and six others, H. Henrickson, John J. Doran, John Davis, Robert Valz, William Levery, and Lieutenant Winslow were hurt more or less. Only one of the wounded died, however, and there were two others very slightly wounded.

Winslow is a son of the Winslow who commanded the Kearsarge when she sank the Alabama.

That was the first time in this war that our

men were under a fire that drew blood. It was the first time that any man in the expedition had ever been under an enemy's fire, good or bad. The commander's report very truthfully said that they behaved with "the utmost coolness and intrepidity." Veterans never behaved better.

That was off Cienfuegos during the forenoon of May 11, 1898. In the afternoon of the same day our men, with equal coolness, faced bloodier disaster at Cardenas.

The Machias, under Commander John F. Merry, the Wilmington, under Commander Chapman C. Todd, the torpedo-boat Winslow, under Lieutenant John B. Bernadou, with the revenue cutter Hudson, under Lieutenant F. H. Newcomb, had been guarding the coast from Matanzas to Cardenas for some time, the rendezvous being off the mouth of Cardenas Bay. They had learned that three small Spanish gun-boats were lying at the piers in Cardenas, and the one question most considered by our crews, was how to get those vessels out for a fight.

Under the circumstances the question was not easily answered. Cardenas Bay is simply a great shoal-water lagoon, say twenty-five miles long and six broad, that is shut off from the sea by a long peninsula on the west, and innumerable islands in an irregular chain. The

main channel has but ten and one-half feet of water in it at one place, and but fifteen feet in several miles of its course. So long as the Spaniards remained at the piers they were

fairly safe, because of the greater draught of the American boats and the intricacies of the channel, which was also mined.

However, the torpedo-boat Foote had been used with success to draw the fire of shore batteries at Matanzas, and Commander Merry,

as senior officer, on May 9th, sent the Winslow into Cardenas Bay to see what effect her presence would have on the gun-boats there.

Dashing across the shoals until within a mile or so of the town, Captain Bernadou opened fire with his little one-pounders. The Machias followed to the chain of islands where the water shoals, and there awaited developments. The fire of the Winslow's onepounders, it may be said in anticipation of what is to be told of torpedo-boats farther on, was not especially effective against either the gun-boats or a shore battery near the town, while her torpedoes were entirely useless against the shore battery. However, she did exasperate the crew of a gun-boat until it steamed out in chase of her. Retreating slowly, the Winslow enticed the gun-boat out until within long range of the Machias. The men of the Machias were so eager that they couldn't wait longer, and the first round having landed a six-pound shell on the Spaniard, it made its best speed back to the piers. A channel mine was exploded near the Winslow, but no damage was done.

On the morning of the 11th, a channel not often used was sounded out, and at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the Wilmington, the Winslow and the Hudson passed this and steered up the bay toward the city, the Winslow leading