e _Whitney_, the _Florida_, and the
_Raleigh_, yesterday, and they are now at Cape San Juan. There seems to
have been a serious mistake as to the rendezvous, for no two ships go to
the same place, and it will take several days to overtake them and get
them to Ponce, where General Miles is waiting.

"Off San Juan the cruiser _New Orleans_ alone maintains the blockade. The
city is grim and silent, but back of her yellow walls there will be plenty
of determination to fight when the Americans fire.

"Captain-General Macias has issued a proclamation, in the course of which
he says:

"'Spain has not sued for peace, and I can drive off the American boats now
as I did Sampson's attempt before.'

"The daughter of the captain-general is helping to drill the gunners in
the fort. Altogether there are ninety-five hundred Spanish regulars in the
city. The troops of the enemy, who are retreating from Ponce and the other
towns on the south coast occupied by the Americans, have not yet arrived."

_August 5._ General Haines, with the Fourth Ohio and the Third Illinois,
left Arroyo for the Spanish stronghold of Guayama. The Fourth Ohio was
placed in the lead, and when only three miles from Arroyo its
skirmish-lines were attacked by the Spaniards from ambush. There was a hot
running fight from this time on until the American troops reached and
captured Guayama, which is about six miles from Arroyo. The Americans lost
three wounded, and the enemy, one killed and two wounded.

_August 6._ The foreign consuls at San Juan de Porto Rico advised the
Spanish authorities to surrender the island to the American troops. The
Spaniards, however, in reply, announced that they had resolved to fight;
thereupon the consuls notified the Spanish commander, Captain-General
Macias, that they would establish a neutral zone between Bayamon and Rio
Piedrass, in which to gather the foreign residents and their portable
properties in order to ensure their safety in the event of a bombardment
of the place by the American forces. The consul sent a similar
notification to General Miles.

_August 7._ A general advance of the American forces. The custom-house in
the village of Farjardo was seized.

_August 8._ The town of Coamo was taken by the Sixteenth Pennsylvania and
the Second and Third Wisconsin. Artillery was used on an outlying
blockhouse, and under cover of this fire the advance was made.

Two hundred Spaniards were captured and twenty killed, includin