ded to
be informed that the notch was the entrance to the harbor of Santiago,
and that the grayish-stone building was Morro Castle. Between us and the
land, in a huge, bow-shaped curve, lay the war-ships of the blockading
fleet, with Commodore Schley's flagship, the _Brooklyn_, at one end,
Admiral Sampson's flagship, the _New York_, at the other, and the
battle-ships _Texas_, _Indiana_, _Iowa_, _Massachusetts_, and half a
dozen gunboats and cruisers lying at intervals between. The convex side
of the crescent was nearest to Morro Castle, and in this part of the
curve were the battle-ships _Texas_, _Indiana_, and _Iowa_, with the
small gunboat _Suwanee_ thrown out as scout or skirmisher in the
position that the head of the arrow would occupy if the line of the
blockading vessels were a bent bow eight miles long.

We steamed directly in toward the entrance to the harbor, without being
stopped or questioned, and took a position in front of Morro Castle,
about one thousand yards south of the battle-ship _Indiana_. From this
point of view, with the aid of a good glass, we could make out quite
distinctly the outlines of the castle, and were a little disappointed to
see still floating over it the red-and-yellow banner of Spain. We had
had no news for more than a week, and thought it possible that both the
castle and the city were in the possession of General Shafter's army.

The entrance to the Bay of Santiago appears, from a distance of three or
four miles, to be a narrow cleft or notch in the high, flat-topped
rampart which forms the coast-line. On account of an eastward curve in
the channel just beyond Morro Castle, one cannot look through the notch
into the upper harbor. At a distance of a quarter of a mile from the
entrance, the line of vision strikes against a steep hill, which forms
one side of the curving, fiord-like passage leading to the city. Owing
to the great depth of water off the entrance to the bay, it is
impossible for vessels to anchor there, and the ships of the blockading
fleet simply drifted back and forth with the winds and tides, getting
under way occasionally, when it became necessary to change position.

After breakfast I went off in a boat to the flagship _New York_, called
upon Admiral Sampson, and obtained from him a brief account of all that
had happened off that coast since the 1st of May.

Admiral Cervera, with a fleet of seven Spanish war-ships, left the Cape
Verde Islands for West Indian wate