The first impression of Santiago is one of filth and poverty,
dilapidated buildings and general decay; but if you climb the hills
that encircle the city and look over the red-topped buildings to the
glistening bay, the prospect is lovely.

As you approach the mouth of the harbor from the coast, you can at
first see nothing but a break in the hills; but soon you discover,
perhaps, the most picturesque fort in the western hemisphere. It is
the Morro Castle, one hundred years older than its namesake at Havana,
perched on a rock at the entrance to the channel. This channel is very
narrow, but it winds and twists about until it opens into a broad,
land-locked bay--the famous harbor of Santiago--with houses running
down to the water's edge.

Into this beautiful harbor, while our ships were watching other ports
and looking in other directions, Admiral Cervera and his fine Spanish
ships quietly sailed at daybreak on the 19th of May. It was a strange
port for the Spaniards to seek, and it was a fatal one.

[Illustration: Morro Castle, Santiago.]

While Sampson was looking in one direction for Admiral Cervera's
ships, Commodore Schley, with another squadron, was close upon their
track. For awhile he thought they were in Cienfuegos, but when he
found they were not there, he kept on up the coast. His flagship was
the splendid cruiser Brooklyn, and among his ships were the
Massachusetts, the Texas and the Iowa--all immense battleships. He
also had a number of smaller vessels, and the swift St. Paul, another
of the famous ships hired by the Government. The St. Paul was