ates by
nearly twelve thousand people. The capital has a population of six
thousand people. This harbour in which we were is beautiful, easy of
access, plenty of deep water, admitting of the presence of a large number
of vessels at the same time, and is an ideal place for a coaling station.

"If our government decided to hold the Philippines it would then come in
so well; San Francisco to Honolulu twenty-one hundred miles, Honolulu to
island of Guam thirty-three hundred, and thence to Manila sixteen hundred
miles. With a chain of supply stations like this, we could send troops the
whole year round if necessary, and any vessel with a steaming capacity of
thirty-five hundred miles could reach a base of supplies.

"The details I have scarcely touched upon, but had the officers and
soldiers dreamed for one moment that they were to be torn from their
homes, there would, I feel sure, have been another story to tell, and I am
firmly convinced this letter would never have been written.

"The captain, in extending to me his congratulations, remarked:
'Braunerzruther, you'll never, as long as you live, have another
experience such as this. I congratulate you on your work.'

"All this whole affair was transacted in Spanish. I had an interpreter
with me, but forgot all about using him. I did not want them to get a
chance to think, even, before it was too late."

_June 25._ The _Florida_ and the _Fanita_ left Key West Saturday, June
25th, under convoy of the _Peoria_, commanded by Lieut. C. W. Rice. On
board the steamers were 650 Cubans under Gen. Emilio Nunez, fifty troopers
of the Tenth U. S. Cavalry under Lieutenants Johnson and Ahearn, and
twenty-five Rough Riders under Winthrop Chanler, brother of Col. William
Astor Chanler.

The cargoes were enormous. There were the horses of the cavalry and 167
sacks of oats and 216 bales of hay to feed them. Topping the list of arms
were two dynamite guns, with 50-pound projectiles to fit them, and two
full batteries of light field-pieces, ten 3-inch rifles of regular
ordnance pattern, with harnesses that go with them, and 1,500 cartridges.
In the matter of infantry rifles there were 4,000 Springfields, with
954,000 cartridges, and 200 Mausers, with 2,000 shells.

Fifty of the Cubans aboard were armed with Mausers, and the others had
Springfields. For the insurgent officers were provided 200 army Colts and
2,700 cartridges. Two hundred books of United States cavalry and infan