was
observed entering the bay.

Not many moments were spent in reconnoitring; the signal flags soon told
that the stranger was flying the English ensign.

Then came the order for the _Baltimore_ to stand in and destroy the
enemy's fortifications, and ten minutes later the battle was on once more.

Now the fire was slow and deliberate, the gunners taking careful aim, bent
on expending the least amount of ammunition with the greatest possible
execution.

The _Baltimore_ suffered most at the beginning of this second round,
because all the enemy's fire was concentrated upon her.

Soon after this second half of the engagement had begun a Spanish shell
exploded on the _Baltimore's_ deck, wounding five of the crew, and another
partially disabled three. It was as if every square yard of surface in
that portion of the bay was covered by a missile from the enemy's guns,
and yet no further damage to the American fleet was done.

When the _Baltimore_ was within twenty-five hundred-yard range she poured
a broadside into the _Reina Christina_ which literally blew that craft
into fragments, and the smoke from the guns yet hung like a cloud above
the deck when the ill-fated flag-ship sank beneath the waters of the bay.

The _Don Juan de Austria_ was the next of the enemy's fleet to be sunk,
and then a like fate overtook the _El Correo_.

The _General Lezo_ was run on shore and abandoned to the flames.

The cruiser _Castilla_ was scuttled by her crew lest the fire which was
raging fiercely should explode her magazine.

The _Velasco_ went down before all her men could escape to the boats. The
guns of the _Don Antonio de Ulloa_ were fought with most desperate
bravery, and even as she sank beneath the surface were the pieces
discharged by the brave Spaniards who stood at their posts of duty until
death overtook them.

The _Concord_ started after the _Mindanao_ lying close inshore, and was
soon joined by the _Olympia_, who poured 8-inch shells into the transport
until she was set on fire in a dozen places.

The entire Spanish fleet had been destroyed; not a vessel remained afloat,
and Commodore Dewey turned his attention to the Cavite battery.

It was 12.45 P. M. when the magazine in the arsenal was exploded by a
shell from the _Olympia_, or the _Petrel_, it is impossible to say which,
and the battle of Manila had been fought and won.

Not until the thirteenth of May was Commodore Dewey's official report
received at the