6,000, and with its general cargo the prize was considered worth
nearly $600,000. The big ship was bound from New Orleans to
Barcelona, via Havana, with a large general cargo. Twelve miles
before making port the steamer was stopped by two shots, and a
prize crew under Ensign H. H. Christy, consisting of sixteen men
from the Detroit and New York, was put on board to take the vessel
back to Key West.

In addition to these notable captures the torpedo boat, Porter,
took the Spanish schooner, Antonio, laden with sugar for Havana,
and the revenue cutter, Winona, added the Spanish steamer
Saturnina to the list.

If it had not been for the excitement of taking occasional prizes,
the blockading of Havana would have been dull business for the
Jack Tars aboard the North Atlantic squadron. Saturday night they
had to listen to the roar of the guns of Morro Castle and see the
flashes of fire from their muzzles, without a reply from the
fleet. Havana officials have declared that the discharge of those
guns was only for signaling purposes and was not an attack on the
fleet, but it would be difficult to make the sailors believe that
Spanish marksmanship was not responsible for the fact that no
balls fell near them.

SPAIN DECLARES WAR.

The Spanish government did not wait for further aggression on the
part of the United States, but herself made the next formal move
by issuing a declaration of the fact that war existed, and
defining the conditions under which the Spanish government