insufficient to keep up with the two others, and it was
determined to employ her in convoying the army when it was ready,--a
duty originally designed for Sampson's division as a whole.

Admiral Sampson with his two ships arrived off Santiago on the 1st of
June at 6 A.M., and established at once the close watch of the port
which lasted until the sally and destruction of Cervera's squadron.
"From that time on," says the Spanish Lieutenant Muller, who was in
the port from the first, as second in command of the naval forces of
the province, "the hostile ships, which were afterwards increased in
number, established day and night a constant watch, without
withdrawing at nightfall, as they used to do." Into the particulars of
this watch, which lasted for a month and which effectively prevented
any attempt of the enemy to go out by night, the writer does not
purpose to enter, as his object in this series of papers is rather to
elicit the general lessons derivable from the war than to give the
details of particular operations. It is only just to say, however,
that all the dispositions of the blockade,--to use the common, but
not strictly accurate, expression,--from the beginning of June to the
day of the battle, were prescribed by the commander-in-chief on the
spot, without controlling orders, and with little, if any, suggestion
on the subject from the Department. The writer remembers none; but he
does well remember the interest with which, during the dark nights of
the month, he watched the size of the moon, which was new on the 18th,
and the anxiety each morning lest news might be received of a
successful attempt to get away on the part of the enemy, whose reputed
speed so far exceeded that of most of our ships. It was not then known
that, by reason of the methods unremittingly enforced by our squadron,
it was harder to escape from Santiago by night than by day, because of
the difficulty of steering a ship through an extremely narrow channel,
with the beam of an electric light shining straight in the eyes, as
would there have been the case for a mile before reaching the harbor's
mouth.

The history of the time--now nearly a year--that has elapsed since
these lines were first written, impels the author, speaking as a
careful student of the naval operations that have illustrated the past
two centuries and a half, to say that in his judgment no more onerous
and important duty than the guard off Santiago fell upon any officer
o