angular but
irregular outline, having an extreme length of perhaps one hundred and
fifty feet, with an average width of seventy-five to one hundred.[7] On
its eastern side it overlooked a deep, wide moat, intended to protect
the wall from an assault made along the crest of the promontory, while
on the other three sides one might look down hundreds of feet to the
wide blue plain of the ocean, the narrow mouth of the harbor, and the
deep sheltered cove of the Estrella battery. The city of Santiago was
hidden behind the flat-topped hill on which the signal-station stands;
but I could see a part of the beautiful bay, with the bare green
mountains behind it, while eastward and westward I could follow the
surf-whitened coast-line to the distant blue capes formed by the
forest-clad slopes of Turquino on one side and the billowy foot-hills of
the Gran Piedra on the other. The fleet of Admiral Sampson had
disappeared; but its place had already been taken by a little fleet of
fishing-smacks from Santiago, whose sun-illumined sails looked no
larger, on the dark-blue expanse of the Caribbean, than the wings of
white Cuban butterflies that had fallen into the sea.

For ten minutes after I reached the aerial platform of the bastion roof
I had no eyes for anything except the magnificent natural cyclorama of
blue water, rolling foot-hills, deep secluded valleys, and palm-fringed
mountains that surrounded me; but, withdrawing my gaze reluctantly at
last from the enchanting scenery, I turned my attention again to the
castle and its armament. Scattered about here and there on the flat roof
of the bastion were five short bronze mortars of various calibers and
two muzzle-loading smooth-bore cannon, mounted, like field-pieces, on
clumsy wooden carriages with long "trails" and big, heavy wheels. It was
evident at a glance that neither of the cannon would be likely to hit a
battle-ship at a distance of five hundred yards without a special
interposition of Providence; and as the mortars had no elevating,
training, or sighting gear, and could be discharged only at a certain
fixed angle, it is doubtful whether they could drop a shell upon a
floating target a mile in diameter--and yet these five mortars and two
eighteen-pounder muzzle-loading guns were all the armament that Morro
Castle had.

After looking the pieces over superficially and forming from mere
inspection a judgment as to their value, I proceeded to examine them
closely for dates. T