The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1898-05-12
NOT AN AMERICAN KILLED AT MANILA.
Entire Spanish Fleet Disabled and Cavite
Batteries SilenCed.


WASHINGTON, D. C., May S.-A three
word cablegram, Hong Kong, McCul-
loch, Wildman,' put the officials at
the state department and newspaper
men in Washington on the quivive
Saturday. The dispatch was received
at the state department at day-break.
At $50 o'clock Secretary Long was
handed the first sheet of the myster-
ious cipher comprising Dewey's Off
cial report, so long awaited, and ca
bled at last from Hong Kong, having
been sent there from Manila by the
McCulloch. The experts went to
work.
At ten o'clock Assistant Secretary
of the Navy Roosevelt spoke as fol
lows to the newspaper men:
Dewey has destroyed or captured
in all six cruisers, four gunboats and
an armed transport. The cruisers
were the Reina Cristina, the Castila,
the Don Antonio de Ulloa, the Don
Juan de Austria, and the Velasco;the
gunboats were the FL Cano, the Gen
eral Lizo and the Marques del Duero,
and the armed transport Isla de Min
dano. Dewey has silenced the batter
les and is in complete possession. He
cut the cable himself. No American
vessel was injured, none of our men
were killed, and only few were hurt.
He struck the Spanish suddenly, and
so smothered their fire that they were
unable to damage our fleet
Shortly afterward Secretary Long
appeared with copy of the translat-
ed cipher in his hand. He had al
ready telephoned its contents to the
President, who had directed him to
make it public without delay.
The Secretary read:
"MANILA, May 1.-Squadron ar
rived at Manila at daybreak this
morning. Immediately engaged the
enemy and destroyed the following
Spanish vessels: Reina Cristina, Cas-
tia, Don Antonia de Ulloa, Isla de
Luzon, Isla de Cuba, General Lezo,
Marques de Duero, Correo, Velasco,
Isla de Mindano, a transport, and
water battery at Cavite The squad
ron is uninjured and only few men
were slightly wounded. Only means
of telegraphing is to American Consul
at Hong Kong. / shall communicate
with him. DEWEY
The Crowd Cheer.
1t was Immediately evident that
discrepancies existed between Roose-
velt's bulletins and the dispatch. 1t
was thought that Secretary Long had
exercised his prerogative and expur-
gated from the message such informa-
tion as he construed to be of purely
military character.
A little later a copy of the modified
cable dispatch was secured from the
Navigation Bureau, and from this it
appears that Secretary Long, quite
naturally and excusably, considering
the excitement under which everyone
was laboring, had inadvertently read
destroyed instead of disabled in
referring to the Spanish vessels.
The differences between the names
of the ships given in Dewey's dis
PduCIl StIu ullSlT I6iil udlleS as Iur-
nished by the Bureau of Navigation
to Mr.. Roosevelt and announced by
him is regarded as unimportant. 1t
is noticeable, however, from the CON
text that Don Antonia and Islo de Ul-
loa, represent one vessel, the Don An
tonic de Ulloa. The fact that Dewey's
dispatch was written Immediately af-
ter silencing the forts probably ex-
plains why he was unable to deter
mine more accurately the precise
names of tine vessels, as instanced in
his mention of the Isla de Luzon, which
the naval authorities believe to have
been mistaken for the Don Juan de
Austria.
The excitement over the receipt of
the first dispatch had scarcely sub
sided when it was noticed that it bore
date of May /, and it could not be for
an instant supposed that the McCul-
loch had occupied more than six days
In making the short run across to