e lay all the monitors, cruisers, and gunboats of
the North Atlantic Squadron that were not actually engaged in sea
service; and, second, the Key West Hotel, which was the headquarters of
the war correspondents, as well as of naval officers assigned to shore
duty, and visitors on all sorts of business from the North. I found it
hard to decide which of these two centers would offer better
opportunities and facilities for observation and the acquirement of
knowledge. If I stayed on board a vessel in the harbor, I should miss
the life and activity of the city, the quick delivery of daily papers
from the North, the news bulletins posted every few hours in the hotel,
and all the stories of fight, peril, or adventure told on shady piazzas
by officers and correspondents just back from the Cuban coast; while, on
the other hand, if I established myself at the hotel, I could not see
the bringing in of Spanish prizes from the Florida Strait, the arrival
and departure of despatch-boats with news and orders, the play of the
search-lights, the gun practice of the big war-ships, the signaling, the
saluting, and the movements generally of the fleet.

After having spent a week at the hotel, I decided to go on board the Red
Cross steamer _State of Texas_, which was lying off the government
wharf, nearly opposite the custom-house, and within one hundred yards of
the two big monitors _Puritan_ and _Miantonomoh_. I made the change just
in time to see, from the best possible point of vantage, the great event
of the week--the arrival of the two powerful fleets commanded
respectively by Admiral Sampson and Commodore Schley. Early Wednesday
morning the graceful, black, schooner-rigged despatch-boat of the New
York "Sun" came racing into the harbor under full head of steam,
followed closely by the ocean-going tug of the Associated Press and two
or three fast yachts in the service of New York papers, all blowing
their whistles vigorously to attract attention from the shore.
Something, evidently, had happened, and, looking seaward with a powerful
glass, I had no difficulty in making out on the horizon, at a distance
of eight or ten miles, the cruiser _Brooklyn_, the battle-ships _Texas_
and _Massachusetts_, and two or three smaller cruisers and gunboats of
the United States navy. The Flying Squadron from Hampton Roads had
arrived.

The harbor at once became a scene of rapid movement and intense
activity. Steam-launches darted out from the piers c