The Press., 1889-05-23

- cAERDAFF BEFORE THE BoMBARDMENT. fead of said bay. Tie castellated struct- ure was rather old, the fortress some what less so; and both had long been considered useless, as there was no prob ability that an enemy would land at this point on the coast.
 Caerdaf was therefore selected as the spot to be operdted upon. No one could for moment imagine that the syndicate had mined this pleoa. and If 1t should be destroyed by no&or bombs it would prove to the country that the government had not been frightened by the tricks of a crafty enemy. ....
 An hour after the receipt of the note in which 1t was stated that Caerdaf had been selected, the syndicate's fleet start ed for that place. The crabs were ele- vated to cruising height, the repeller taken in tow, and by the afternoon of the next day the fleet was lying of Caer- daff. A note was sent on shore to the officer in command. stating that the bombardment would begin at 10 o'clock in the morning of the next day but one, and requesting that information of the hour appointed be instantly transmitted to London. When this had been done, the fleet steamed six or seven miles off shore, where it lay to or cruised about for two nights and day.
 AS soon as the government had se- lected Caerdaf for bombardment imme- diate measures were taken to remove the small garrisons and the inhabitants of the fishing village from possible danger. When the syndicate's note was received by the commandant- of the fort he was already in receipt of ordersfrom the war office to evacuate tlao forsif sifications and to superintend the removal-of the fisher men and their families to point of safety farther up the coast.
 Caerdaf was place difficult of access by land, the nearest railroad stations be- ing fifteen or twenty miles away, but on the day after the arrival of the syndi- cate's fleet in the offing thousands of people made their way to this part of the country, anxious to see-if perchance they might find an opportunity to safely see-what might happen at 10 o'clock the next morning. Officers of the army and navy, government officials, press correspondents in great numbers, and curious and anxious observers of all classes, hastened to the Welsh coast.
 The little towns where the visitors left the trains were crowded to overhowing, and every possible conveyance by which the mountains lying back of Cardiff could be reached was eagerly secured, many persons, however, being obliged to depend upon their own legs. Soon after sunrise of the appointed day the forts, the village and the surrounding lower country were entirely deserted; and every point of vantage on the noun tains lying some miles back from the coast was occupied by excited spectators, nearly every one armed with field glass.
 A few of the guns from the fortifca- tions were transported to an overlooking height, in order that they might be brought into action in case the repeller, instead of bombarding, should send men in boats to take possession of the evacu- ated Notifications, or should attempt any mining operations. The gunners for this battery were stationed at safe place to the rear, whence they could readily reach their gums If necessary.
 The next day was one of supreme i'm. portance to the syndicate. On this day 1t must make plain to the world, not only what the motor bomb could do, but that the motor bomb did what was done. Before leaving the English channel the director of Repeller No. ii had received telegraphic advices from both Europe and, America indicating the general drift of public opinion in regard to the recent sea fight; and, besides these, many Eng hsh and continental papers had been brought to him from the French coast.
 From all these the director perceived that the cause of the syndicate had in a certain way sufIared from the manner in which the battle in the channel had been conducted. Every newspaper urged that if the repeller carried guns capable of throwing the bombs which the syndicate proposed to use there was no reason why every ship in the British fleet should not have been destroyed. But as the repeller had not fired a single shot at the fleet, and as the battle had been fought entirely by the crabss there was every reason to believe that if there were such things as motor guns their range was very short, not as great as that of the ordinary dyna- mite cannon. The great risk run by one of the crabs in order to disable edyna- mite gunboat seemed an additional proof of this. ..>s f
 Itwas urged that the explosions in the water might have been produced by tor pedoes; that the torpedo boat which had been destroyed was so near the repeller that an ordinary shell was sufficient to accomplish the damage that had been done.
 To gainsay these assumptions was inn perative on the syndicate's forces. To firmly establish the prestige, of the in-