heir forces were too large to allow a landing there. A
retreat was ordered, and the party on shore rushed to the boats, but
volley after volley came from the shore, and they were compelled to throw
themselves into the water, and paddle alongside the boats with only their
heads exposed, until the ships were reached. The Spaniards had the range,
however, and five Cubans were wounded, though none seriously. Returning to
the _Peoria_, the men reported that a vicious fire had come from a grove
of cocoanut palms to the eastward of the fort. The _Peoria_ opened her
guns on the place indicated, and must have killed many Spaniards, for her
shells dropped into the smoke and flash of the adversary's fire, silenced
it at once, and forced them to send up rockets for help.

A number of volleys were sent at the _Peoria_ with a view to disabling her
gunners, but they were badly directed, and fell against her side and into
the water. When the small boats reached the ship it was dark. Then the
discovery was made that, besides Captain Nunez, whose body was left on the
beach, there were missing, Chanler, Doctors Lund and Abbott, Lieutenant
Agramonte, and two Cubans. It was reported that Chanler had been mortally
wounded, and was kept hidden in the bushes along the shore by the two
doctors. Rescue parties were immediately organised, composed of
volunteers, and no less than four were sent ashore during the night.
Toward morning Lieutenant Ahearn, in charge of one of these, found Chanler
and his companion.

Chanler's wound proved to be in the right elbow. After sunrise Agramonte
and his Cubans were discovered and brought off.

_July 1._ The next day the gunboat _Helena_, under Captain Swynburn,
arrived, and she and the _Peoria_ steamed in toward Las Tunas, which the
Spaniards had been vigorously fortifying.

Tunas is connected by rail with Sancti Spiritus, a town of considerable
size, and reinforcements and artillery had been rapidly coming in. Range
buoys had been placed in the bay, but avoiding these, the ships drew in to
close range, and opened fire, the _Peoria_ at twelve hundred and the
_Helena_ at fourteen hundred yards. The Spaniards had several Krupp
field-pieces of three or four inches, mounted on earthworks along the
water-front, and they began a vigorous, but ill-directed reply with shell
and shrapnel. The fire of the American ships was most accurate and
terribly destructive. The Spanish gunners had not fired more than fifteen
o