The record-union., 1898-07-23
Pititul Picture Presented by the
Ships Sunk by Dewey.
Exodus of Refugees From the City on
Account Of The Advance Made by
AguinaIdo and the
Rebels.

MANILA, May 29.-The British gun
ago from Hongkong with mails, which
it was thought the American Naval
Commander, Rear Admiral Dewey,
might not see his way to pass for fear
of a technical breach of the blockade;
but he made no objection. So all the
mails went ashore and a blessing they
We're to the poor blockaded Manila res
idents. There are business firms with
immense interests at stake, all depend
ing on mail advices, now that the tele-
graph cables are cut. For few days
the Iloilo cable was used, messages be-
ing forwarded thence by boat to La
buan, but that did not last long, for the
Americans found out that the Span
home government on war matters and
so they stopped it.
The last message said that a squad
ron of four armored cruisers, accom-
panied by coal ships and conveying
torpedo boats and troop ships, with 12,-
900 soldiers on board, had left Spain
for the Philippines.
Admiral Dewey has been most cour-
teous and obliging. He readily gave
permission to visit the arsenal at Ca
vite, where, however, there is nothing
to be seen of interest. Cavite is on a
low, sandy spot about eight miles from
Manila, as the crow flies, but nearly
thirty miles by road, as there is a
broad bay intervening and the shores
are swampy for some distance inland
The Cavite peninsula points in the di-
rection of Manila, and is joined to the
mainland by a low, narrow isthrnus,
where in last years rebellion two bodies
Of Spanish troops met and mistook each
other for rebels, and practically ami
hilated each other, over a thousand Of
| the soldiers losing their lives through
the blunder At the end of the pelin-
sula are two points-a large one out
side named Sangley, a smaller one, Ca
vite proper, on the inner side, jutting
out between the upper and lower parts
Of Cavite Bay.
repairing ships and a small battery Of
two KrupD 1o-centimeter guns. At
Cavite arsenal several of the oldest
type of Armstrong muzzle-loading g.
inch guns are mounted, apparently for
ornament, with symmetrical mounds Of
round shot alongside. In the arsenal
! inclosure are buildings of the usual
sort, machine sheds, ammunition
stores, etc. The engine shop is kept
in good order by the Americans. it is
small but useful. The machinery
mostly bears the names of English
makers and has been maintained in q
satisfactory state of repair. All the
rest-ma gaines, officers quarters. hos
pital and barracks-had been looted
first by the Spaniards then by the
rebels. Here and there the buildings
show a great shot hole, but there was
little shelHng OF the place.
The Spanish ships in the bay. how
ever. tell a pitiful and terrible tale The
poor old Castillo is the worst, though
she shows the least, for she is now az
most entirely submerged. She was a
wooden cruiser, and all her woodwork
burned to the waters edge, leaving only
the metal skeleton, the ribs and frames
tunnels, ventilators and hoists and gun
shields, battered, perforated in a thou
sand spots and hammered and twist
ed out of position and almost out of
recognition. She is wonderful, terri
Die testimony to the destructiveness Of
modern weapons, we'll handled 1t is
the most shocking object lesson that
the friends of peace could possibly ad-
duce-to picture a number of men and
boys cooped up for two hours on a
floating target, to be shot to bits with
large and small projecties maneling.
mutilating and numbering mercilessly.
The Castillo was SO old that when
she had perforce to venture out of
Manila Bay, to go only thirty miles to
Subg, the working of the propeller
shaft in the tubes started the timber,
and she leaked too fast for the pumps
to keep her floating. She had to be
beached gently at Subig till the timbers
could be patched up with cement When
her guns We're fired she again started
to fill with water. 1t was an enormity.
crime, ever to put such a vessel in
the fighting line. To make men fight
in such a coffin ship was simply dia-
bolical.
The Reina Christiana is less SUBJ
merged, less burned, but shows more
battering. OF her bridge only the
starboard supports and a foot or two
of the bridge itself remain, the rest
evidently being blown into atoms by
a shell which went on and struck the
funnel near the base and apparently