of possibilities. Difficulties of coaling
and an inveterate tendency to leave the initiative to the enemy
decided the Spanish against such a project. But its bare possibility
set the whole east coast in a panic, which has been much ridiculed,
but which arose naturally enough from a complete lack of instruction
in naval matters and from lack of a sensible control of the press.
The result was an unfortunate division of the fleet. A so-called
Flying squadron under Commodore Schley, consisting of the _Brooklyn,
Massachusetts, Texas,_ and 3 small cruisers, was held at Hampton
Roads; whereas, if not thus employed, these ships might have blockaded
the south side of Cuba from the beginning of the war. A northern
patrol squadron, of vessels not of much use for this or any other
purpose, was also organized to guard the coast from Hampton Roads
north.

On May 4, with Cervera still at large, Sampson lifted his guard of
Havana--unwisely in the opinion of Mahan--and took his best ships,
the _New York, Indiana, Iowa,_ and two monitors, to reconnoiter San
Juan, Porto Rico, where it was thought the missing fleet might
first appear. Just as he was bombarding San Juan, on the morning
of May 12, the Navy Department received a cable from Martinique
announcing Cervera's arrival there. Havana and Cienfuegos (on the
south side of Cuba and connected with Havana by rail) were considered
the only two ports where the Spanish fleet could be of value to
the forces on the island; and from these two ports both American
squadrons were at this time a thousand miles away. Schley hastened
southward, left Key West on the 19th, and was off Cienfuegos by
daylight on the 21st. It was fairly quick work; but had the Spanish
fleet moved thither at its usual speed of 6 knots from its last
stopping-place, it would have got there first by at least 12 hours.
The Spanish admiral, finding no coal at Martinique, had left a
crippled destroyer there and moved on to the Dutch island of Curacao,
where on the 14th and 15th he secured with difficulty about 500
tons of fuel. Thence, in all anxiety, he made straight for the
nearest possible refuge, Santiago, where he put in at daybreak on
the 19th and was soon receiving congratulations on the completion
of a successful cruise.

[Illustration: WEST INDIES

Movements in the Santiago campaign.]

By the next day Sampson, having hurried back from San Juan and
coaled, was again in force off Havana. There he received news of