lying Squadron was on its way to Key West, and directed him to regain
that point himself with all possible rapidity.

Cervera left behind him at Martinique one of his torpedo destroyers,
the _Terror_. A demonstration was made by this vessel, probably,
though it may have been by one of her fellows, before St.
Pierre,--another port of the island,--where the _Harvard_ was lying;
and as the latter had been sent hurriedly from home with but a
trifling battery, some anxiety was felt lest the enemy might score a
point upon her, if the local authorities compelled her to leave. If
the Spaniard had been as fast as represented, he would have had an
advantage over the American in both speed and armament,--very serious
odds. The machinery of the former, however, was in bad order, and she
soon had to seek a harbor in Fort de France, also in Martinique; after
which the usual rule, that two belligerents may not leave the same
neutral port within twenty-four hours of each other, assured the
_Harvard_ a safe start. This incident, otherwise trivial, is worthy of
note, for it shows one of the results of our imperfect national
preparation for war. If the conditions had allowed time to equip the
_Harvard_ with suitable guns, she could have repulsed such an enemy,
as a ship of the same class, the _St. Paul_, did a few weeks later off
San Juan, whither the _Terror_ afterwards repaired, and where she
remained till the war was over.

The news of Cervera's appearance off Martinique was first received at
the Navy Department about midnight of May 12th-13th, nearly thirty-six
hours after the fact. As our representatives there, and generally
throughout the West Indies, were very much on the alert, it seems not
improbable that their telegrams, to say the least, were not given
undue precedence of other matters. That, however, is one of the
chances of life, and most especially of war. It is more to the
purpose, because more useful to future guidance, to consider the
general situation at the moment the telegram was received, the means
at hand to meet the exigencies of the case, and what instructive light
is thereby thrown back upon preceding movements, which had resulted in
the actual conditions.

Admiral Cervera's division had been at Martinique, and, after a brief
period of suspense, was known to have disappeared to the westward. The
direction taken, however, might, nay, almost certainly must, be
misleading,--that was part of his game. From it nothi