en I followed with two hours of cannonading which I
do not believe has ever been equaled in naval warfare. The shots
from the 'Olympia' were the prearranged signal for the other
ships to do the same.

"We soon discovered that the batteries of Cavite were very
heavily mounted, and the ordnance included several ten-inch guns,
and we were not long in finding out that the 'Don Antonio de
Ulloa' and the 'Reina Cristina,' the flagship, carried much
heavier guns than we thought. We began to fear that our ships had
met their match. As hot as the battle was, the heat of the sun
was equally so, and I had my men who were bringing up the
ammunition throw off every vestige of clothing except their
shoes.

"The Spanish guns had opened upon us at 5.10 A.M., and it was
fully 5.40 before we began to reply. But when we did, we made
every shot tell, for our gunners demonstrated that their
opponents were no match for them in accuracy, although the
Spaniards had every advantage and should have known the exact
range of every point in the harbor, while of the American fleet
not a single gunner had ever as much as been in the harbor
before.

"By 6.30 we had circled three times, and were starting for the
fourth when the Spanish admiral came out in the 'Reina Cristina'
and gallantly assailed us; but we made it hot for him. I don't
know how in the world he escaped with his life. While he was
standing on the bridge a shot from one of our ships--I think it
was the 'Concord'--blew the bridge clean over; in fact, shot it
right from under him, but the Admiral was apparently uninjured,
for a few minutes later I saw him walking the deck as calmly as
though he was on parade. It was getting too hot for him, and he
evidently saw that his ship was no match for us, and he turned to
get back to his fleet.

"Just as the 'Reina Cristina' swung around an eight-inch shell
from the port battery, which I was tending, struck her square
astern, and set her on fire. By this time other gunners had got
the range, and if ever a ship was riddled it was the 'Reina
Cristina.' I do not think it was fifteen minutes from the time
the shell from the 'Boston' struck her when she went down with,
it is said, over two hundred men. The Admiral, however, had
escaped in a small boat and