ez Canal, the fine
fleet under Rojestvensky, nearly sixty vessels strong, loitered on its
way with wearisome deliberation, dallying for a protracted interval in
the waters of the Indian Ocean and not passing Singapore on its journey
north till April 12. It looked almost as if its commander feared the
task before him, six months having now passed since it left the Baltic
on its very deliberate cruise.

The second Russian squadron, under Admiral Nebogatoff, did not pass
Singapore until May 5, it being the 13th before the two squadrons met
and combined. On the 22d they were seen in the waters of the Philippines
heading northward. The news of this, flashed by cable from the far east
to the far west, put Europe and America on the _qui vive_, in eager
anticipation of startling events quickly to follow.

Meanwhile where was Admiral Togo and his fleet? For months he had been
engaged in the work of bottling up the Russian squadron at Port Arthur.
Since the fall of the latter place and the destruction of the war-ships
in its harbor he had been lying in wait for the slow-coming Baltic
fleet, doubtless making every preparation for the desperate struggle
before him, but doing this in so silent and secret a method that the
world outside knew next to nothing of what was going on. The astute
authorities of Japan had no fancy for heralding their work to the world,
and not a hint of the movements or whereabouts of the fleet reached
men's ears.

As the days passed on and the Russian ships steamed still northward, the
anxious curiosity as to the location of the Japanese fleet grew
painfully intense. The expected intention to waylay Rojestvensky in the
southern straits had not been realized, and as the Russians left the
Philippines in their rear, the question, Where is Togo? grew more
insistent still. With extraordinary skill he had lain long in ambush,
not a whisper as to the location of his fleet being permitted to make
its way to the western world; and when Rojestvensky ventured into the
yawning jaws of the Korean Strait he was in utter ignorance of the
lurking-place of his grimly waiting foes.

Before Rojestvensky lay two routes to choose between, the more direct
one to Vladivostok through the narrow Korean Strait, or the longer one
eastward of the great island of Honshu. Which he would take was in doubt
and in which Togo awaited him no one knew. The skilled admiral of Japan
kept his counsel well, doubtless satisfied in his own mind