s who did not
feel like taking revenge for our poor murdered sailors.

War soon came. In April, 1898, the Congress declared war against Spain
and a strong fleet of iron-clad ships was sent to Cuba. An army was
gathered as quickly as possible, and the soldiers were put on board
ship and sailed away to the south. There was a Spanish fleet in the
harbor of Santiago de Cuba and an American fleet outside keeping the
ships of Spain like prisoners in the harbor; so the soldiers were sent
to that place, and it was not long before an army was landed and was
marching towards the city of Santiago. I am glad to say that the
fighting did not last very long. There was a bold charge up hill by the
Rough Riders and others in the face of the Spanish guns, and the Spanish
army was driven back to the city. Here they were shut up and soon
surrendered, and the war in Cuba was at an end.

But the iron-clad ships in the harbor were not given up. On the 3d of
July a brave dash for liberty was made. They came out at full speed
where our great ships lay waiting, and soon there was one of the
strangest fights that had ever been seen. The Spanish ships rushed
through the waters near the coast, firing as they fled. After them came
the American ships at full speed, firing as they followed. But not many
of the Spanish halls touched the American ships, while the great guns of
the Americans raked the Spaniards fore and aft.

Soon some of their ships were on fire and had to be run ashore. In an
hour or two the chase was at an end and the fine Spanish fleet was sunk
and burning, with hundreds of its crew killed, while on the American
ships only one man had been killed. It was a wonderful flight and fight.
I should tell you more about it, only that I have another story of the
same kind to relate.

Far away from Cuba, on the other side of the world, in the broad Pacific
Ocean, near the coast of China, is a great group of islands called the
Philippines, which had long belonged to Spain. Here, in the harbor of
Manila, the capital of the islands, was a Spanish fleet. There was an
American fleet in one of the harbors of China, under the command of
Commodore George Dewey. And as soon as war had been declared Dewey was
ordered to go to Manila and sink or take the Spanish fleet.

Dewey was a man who thought it his duty to obey orders. He had been told
to sink or take the Spanish fleet, and that was what he meant to try his
best to do. Over the waters sped hi