and decided the matter.
Her West India Squadron was weak, even on paper, and was in a condition
which would have made it madness to attempt to meet the Americans
without reenforcement. She therefore decided to dispatch a fighting
fleet from her home forces. Accordingly on the 29th of April, Admiral
Cervera left the Cape Verde Islands and sailed westward with one fast
second-class battleship, the Cristobal Colon, three armored cruisers,
and two torpedo boat destroyers. It was a reasonably powerful fleet as
fleets went in the Spanish War, yet it is difficult to see just what
good it could accomplish when it arrived on the scene of action. The
naval superiority in the West Indies would still be in the hands of
the concentrated American Navy, for the Spanish forces would still be
divided, only more equally, between Spanish and Caribbean waters. The
American vessels, moreover, would be within easy distance of their home
stations, which could supply them with every necessity. The islands
belonging to Spain, on the other hand, were ill equipped to become
the base of naval operations. Admiral Cervera realized to the full the
difficulty of the situation and protested against an expedition which he
feared would mean the fall of Spanish power, but public opinion forced
the ministry, and he was obliged to put to sea.

For nearly a month the Spanish fleet was lost to sight, and dwellers on
the American coast were in a panic of apprehension. Cervera's objective
was guessed to be everything from a raid on Bar Harbor to an attack on
the Oregon, then on its shrouded voyage from the Pacific coast. Cities
on the Atlantic seaboard clamored for protection, and the Spanish fleet
was magnified by the mist of uncertainty until it became a national
terror. Sampson, rightly divining that Cervera would make for San
Juan, the capital and chief seaport of Porto Rico, detached from his
blockading force a fighting squadron with which he sailed east, but not
finding the Spanish fleet he turned back to Key West. Schley, with the
Flying Squadron, was then ordered to Cienfuegos. In the meantime Cervera
was escaping detection by the American scouts by taking an extremely
southerly course; and with the information that Sampson was off San
Juan, the Spanish Admiral sailed for Santiago de Cuba, where he arrived
on May 19, 1898.

Though Cervera was safe in harbor, the maneuver of the American fleet
cannot be called unsuccessful. Cervera would have preferred