s ships, as swiftly as steam could
carry them, and into the harbor of Manila they went at midnight while
deep darkness lay upon the waters. It was early morning of the 1st of
May when the American ships rounded up in front of the city and came in
sight of the Spanish fleet. This lay across the mouth of a little bay
with forts to guard it on the land at each side.

It was a great danger which Commodore Dewey and his bold followers
faced. Before them lay the Spanish ships and the forts. There were
torpedo boats which might rush out and sink them. There were torpedoes
under the waters which might send the flagship itself to the bottom.
Some men would have stopped and felt their way, but George Dewey was not
that kind of a man. Without stopping for a minute after his long journey
from China, he dashed on with the fleet and ordered his men to fire.
Soon the great guns were roaring and the air was full of fire and smoke.

Round and round went the American ships, firing as they passed. Every
shot seemed to tell. It was not long before some of the Spanish ships
were blazing, while hardly a ball had touched an American hull. After an
hour or two of this hot work Dewey drew out and gave his men their
breakfast. Then back he came and finished the job. When he was done, the
whole Spanish fleet was sunk and burning, with hundreds of its men dead
and wounded, while not an American ship was badly hurt and not an
American sailor was killed. There had hardly been so one-sided a battle
since the world began.

There, I have, as I promised, told you in few words the story of the
war. Soon after a treaty of peace was signed and all was at an end. The
brave Dewey was made an admiral and was greatly honored by the American
people.

If you should ask me what we gained from the war, I would answer that we
gained in the first place what the war was fought for, the freedom of
Cuba from the cruel rule of Spain. But we did not come out of it without
something for ourselves. We obtained the fertile island of Porto Rico in
the West Indies and the large group of the Philippine Islands, near the
coast of Asia. These last named came as the prize of Dewey's victory,
but I am sorry to say that there was a war with the people themselves
before the United States got possession. During the war with Spain we
obtained another fine group of islands, that known as Hawaii, in the
Pacific Ocean. You can see from this that our country made a wide spread
over th