e saved from a horrible death.

While these disasters were occurring in the bay, the land batteries on
the isthmus never for an instant slackened the tremendous fire that had
been commenced on the previous morning; until at daybreak on the 14th
the Spaniards, having become aware of the fate of their comrades on
board the vessels, ordered the cannonade to cease.

Captain Curtis had scarcely completed his service of humanity before
eight of the remaining ships blew up and one only remained unconsumed.
At first it was hoped that she might be saved as a trophy of the
glorious action, but this was afterward found impossible, and she was
set fire to like the rest. The flag of Admiral Moreno remained flying
until his battery was totally destroyed.

Desperate had been the struggle and great was the victory. During the
hottest of the fire General Eliot took his station on the King's
Bastion, exposed to the guns of the two most powerful battering-ships.
Nothing could exceed the coolness and courage of the troops during this
trying day; the steady and incessant fire was never allowed to slacken,
the guns were served, says the governor, "with the deliberate coolness
and precision of school practice, but the exertions of the men were
infinitely superior."

The furnaces for heating the shot were found to be too few, and huge
fires were kindled in convenient corners of the streets. An immense
amount of ammunition was expended on both sides; three hundred twenty of
the enemy's cannon were in play throughout the day, and to these were
opposed only ninety-six guns from the garrison. Upward of eight thousand
shot and seven hundred sixteen barrels of gunpowder were fired away by
the garrison.

When the unparalleled force of the bombardment is considered, the
casualties among the troops were remarkably few: one officer, two
sergeants, and thirteen men only were killed, and five officers and
sixty-three men wounded. The enemy's losses, on the contrary, were very
great; on the floating batteries alone one thousand four hundred
seventy-three men were either killed, wounded, or missing.

By the evening of the 14th the bay was cleared of the shattered wrecks,
and not a vestige of the formidable armament, which the day before had
been the hope and pride of Spain, remained.

The contest was at an end, and the united strength of two ambitious and
powerful nations had been humbled by a straitened garrison of six
thousand effective men. With