tarily speaking, to place our two divisions
before the ports named. It was safer to do so than to keep one at
Hampton Roads; for offence is a safer course than defence.

Consider the conditions. The Spaniards, after crossing the Atlantic,
would have to coal. There were four principal ports at which they
might do so,--Havana, Cienfuegos, Santiago, and San Juan de Puerto
Rico. The first two, on the assumption, would be closed to them,
unless they chose to fight a division so nearly equal to their own
force that, whatever the result of the battle, the question of coaling
would have possessed no further immediate interest for them. Santiago
and San Juan, and any other suitable eastern port open to them--if
such there was--were simply so many special instances of a particular
case; and of these San Juan was the most favorable to them, because,
being the most distant, it ensured more time for coaling and getting
away again before our divisions could arrive. After their departure
from Curacao was known, but not their subsequent intentions, and while
our divisions were proceeding to Havana and Cienfuegos, measures were
under consideration at the Navy Department which would have made it
even then difficult for them to escape action, if they went to San
Juan for coal; but which would have raised the difficult close to the
point of the impossible, had our divisions from the first been placed
before Havana and Cienfuegos, which strategic conditions dictated, but
fears for our own inadequately defended coast prevented.

To ensure this result, the contemplated method, one simply of
sustained readiness, was as follows. Adequate lookouts around Puerto
Rico were to be stationed, by whom the enemy's approach would be
detected and quickly cabled; and our two divisions were to be kept
ready to proceed at an instant's notice, coaled to their best steaming
lines, as far as this was compatible with a sufficiency of fuel to
hold their ground after arriving off San Juan. Two of our fastest
despatch vessels, likewise at their best steaming immersion, were to
be held at Key West ready to start at once for Cienfuegos to notify
the squadron there; two, in order that if one broke down on the way,
one would surely arrive within twenty-four hours. Thus planned, the
receipt of a cable at the Department from one of the lookouts off
Puerto Rico would be like the touching of a button. The Havana
division, reached within six hours, would start at once; th