st both Cuba and the Philippines. Now in 1898 the Navy Department
of the United States, anticipating war, saw in the proximity of
the American squadron to the Spanish islands of the Philippines an
opportunity rather than a problem. Commodore George Dewey, the commander
of the Asiatic squadron, was fully prepared to enter into the plan.
As early as the seventies, when the Virginius affair * threatened war
between Spain and the United States, Dewey, then a commander on the west
coast of Mexico, had proposed, in case war were declared, that he sail
for the Philippines and capture Manila. Now he was prepared to seek in
the hostile ports of those islands the liberty that international law
forbade him in the neutral ports of Asia. How narrow a margin of time he
had in which to make this bold stroke may be realized from the fact that
the Baltimore, his second vessel in size, reached Hongkong on the 22d of
April and went into dry dock on the 23d, and that on the following day
the squadron was ordered either to leave the port or to intern.

* A dispute between the United States and Spain, arising out of
the capture of the Virginius, an American vessel engaged in
filibustering off the coast of Cuba, and the execution at Santiago of
the captain and a number of the crew and passengers. The vessel and the
surviving passengers were finally restored by the Spanish authorities,
who agreed to punish the officials responsible for the illegal acts.

The little armada of six vessels with which Dewey started for the
Philippines was puny enough from the standpoint of today; yet it was
strong enough to cope with the larger but more old-fashioned Spanish
fleet, or with the harbor defenses unless these included mines--of
whose absence Dewey was at the moment unaware. If, however, the Spanish
commander could unite the strength of his vessels and that of the coast
defenses, Dewey might find it impossible to destroy the Spanish fleet.
In that case, the plight of the American squadron would be precarious,
if its ultimate self-destruction or internment did not become necessary.

Commodore Dewey belonged to that school of American naval officers who
combine the spirit of Farragut's "Damn the torpedoes" with a thorough
knowledge of the latest scientific devices. Though he would take all
precautions, he would not allow the unknown to hold him back. After a
brief rendezvous for tuning up at Mirs Bay near Hongkong on the Chinese
coast, Dewey st