for when the New Orleans fired, only a flash was seen. She carried smokeless powder and there was no white cloud hanging about her to interfere with the men who were looking through the sights on her guns. This is a most important matter. We plume ourselves on the excellence of the work of our sailors, but we do not give them the full credit that they deserve, for we compelled them to fight with guns that were not the best, and with powder that was as bad as any, if not the worst, in the world.

According to Sampson's report, the firing began at 7.30 o'clock and ended at 10. The Spaniards woke up soon after it began and gave a fine exhibit of fireworks-an exhibit that served to strengthen the nerves of our men, even if it did not do any damage. The newspaper reports of the battle all mentioned the dash of the auxiliary Yankee with her Naval Militia crew, and of the Suwanee. The Yankee and Texas kept firing from their stern-guns long after the squadron was ordered out to sea.

The Spaniards reported sixteen men from the Reina Mercedes, including her second officer and an ensign, killed, and one officer and eleven sailors wounded, while two Spanish artillery lieutenants and one private were killed and three officers and twenty-one soldiers were wounded among the land force. A number of our shells passed over the hills, and fell in the

"The watch described was varied frequently at night by the coughing up (for so it sounded) of a gun-cotton projectile from the Vesuvius, the explosion of which at times shook the earth for a radius of miles. I remember one of her earlier efforts, when lying asleep on the transom of the chart-house forward (my usual night resting-place) I awoke conscious of a heavy jar to the whole ship's structure, which must have been transmitted from the point where the shell landed through the earth and up through the three hundred fathoms of water on the surface of which we were lying.

There is no question of the terrifying effect of these shells upon an enemy; so long as they were expected the men at the batteries remained away from their guns and under cover; and there is also no question of their great destructiveness. They ploughed great pits in the earth, and had they fallen fairly in a battery must have put the guns hors de combat for a time, at least."

The shells she fired contained two hundred and fifty pounds of gun-cotton, and men who saw where they landed say that they made holes like the cellar of a country house." Could a new Vesuvius be built and armed under designs from Washington, we should have a ship for attacking land batteries that would be a real terror.

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CHAPTER XV

THE MARINES AT GUANTANAMO

OUR FIRST ARMED FORCE TO MAINTAIN A HOLD ON CUBAN SOILTHE BAY CAPTURED BY THE MARBLEHEAD AND YANKEE—IT WAS HOT WORK FOR A WEEK-THE SPANIARDS IN THE BRUSH —ASSAULT ON A FUNERal cortége-SPANISH WOODS STATION CAPTURED, AND CAIMANERA'S FORT DESTROYED—A TORPEDO IN THE PROPELLER OF THE TEXAS-GOOD HEALTH OF THIS FORCE ON SHORE.

HAVING given the Spanish batteries at Santiago harbor mouth an effective and discouraging proof of the skill of the naval gunners, the next care of the Admiral was to secure a harbor where any of his ships in need of coal or repairs might lie in safety regardless of the weather. For the hurricane season was at hand, and a shelter for these purposes was absolutely necessary to maintain the efficiency of the squadron on the blockade. And a harbor of the kind needed lay forty miles away to the east-Guantanamo Bay. It was a much better place for coaling ships than the Sand Key Roads at Key West, to which Schley had proposed to return to coal his squadron. A num