The San Francisco call., 1898-05-09
General Stewart L. WoodfOrd United States Minister
 to Spain, Who Has Returned to Washington.

lO CpdAEf, w ifO HidS NC' men at the guns, with directions that if we were not back in one hour he should open fire on the arsenal.
 On landing we were met by Captain Sostoa of the Spanish navy, next in rank at this station to Admiral Mon tijo, who had been wounded and con- veyed to Manila. Commander Lamber- ton, Lieutenant Wood of the Petrel and myself went with Sostoa to the arsenal headquarters, which were at once sur rounded by an armed guard. Comman- der Lamberton told Captain Sostoa that he was surprised to see his men under arms after they had surrendered the day before.
 Captain Sostoa replied that they had not surrendered, but had merely hoist ed the white flag in order to enable them to remove the women and chll- dren to places of safety.
 Commander Lamberton said that when the Spanish flag came down and the white flag went up, no other inter- pretation could be placed upon it than that 1t was an unconditional surrender, ana the women dNd CLilQI OdSi1l 4iO| to have been there anyhow
 Captain Sostoa remarked that we came so early in the day they had not had time to remove them. If we had not begun the fight so soon the women would have been out of the way.
 Commander Lamberton reminded him that the Spaniards had fired the first shot. However, he added. he was not there to discuss past events. He had come, as Commodore Dewey's represen- tative, to take possession of the arsenal All the Spaniards there, he said, must surrender their arms and persons as prisoners of war, otherwise our ships would open fire on them
 Then Captain Costoa said he could do nothing, not being in command, and would have to consult his superiors.
 Commander Lamberton refused to recognize any one but the senior of ficer actually present, who. he said. must comply with Commodore Dewey's conditions.
 Captain Sostoa asked to have the terms of surrender put down in writ ing, which was done, these being the conditions: 'Without further delay all the Spanish officers and men must be withdrawn, and no buildings or stores must be injured. As Commodore Dewey does not wish further hostility with the Spanish naval forces, the Spanish officers will be paroled, and the forces at the arsenal will deliver all their small arms"
 Captain Sostoa thon pleaded for more time. The talk had all been in Span T Wood was to Cpen fire was already nearly up. Consequently, Commander Lamberton gave the Spaniards two hours time. If the white flag was not rehoiste over the arsenal at noon, he said, we should reopen fire. We re- turned to the Petrel just in time and started back across the bay to report to the commodore. At 10 , o'clock the whit flag was hoisted, but when we went to take possession of the arsenal in the afternoon, we found that every seaman had marched off to Manila, carrying his Mauser rifle with him. Hearing that evening that the Gov ernor of Manila had refused to let the cable company transmit our messages, Commodore Dewey sent the merchant steamer Zafiro a short distance down the bay and had her cut the cable. Having no instruments for working the cable, we could not keep up com and the Governor would not let the cable company send it's operators to our ships.
 No one can complain that Commo- dore Dewey has been slow in finishing off his work, but he would have done 1t even sooner but for an accident to one of the Raleigh's pumps, which detained him in Mfrs Bay two days, and also the slow speed of which the transport ves- the Spanish ships would have been de- stroyed on Thursday instead of Sun day, as in all other respects Commodore Dewey's plans were complete.
 During the passage of the forts at the entrance of Manila Bay on Saturday night Frank B. Randall, chief engineer of the revenue cutter McCulloch, died suddenly from heat and prostration. He was buried at sea the next day.
 Although the McCulloch was of no value as fighting machine, Commo- dore Dewey several times made use of her to overhaul sailing craft. She kept at a safe distance from the scene of action on Sunday, but went down the bay to meet the English merchant steamer Esmeralda, which was coming in, and made an excellent record for speed as dispatch boat while bringing us over to Hongkong on Thursday. There were three civilian spectators of the battle at distance of ten miles from the fighting line. but that inci- dent hardly warrants the claim of any newspaper that it had a steamer spe- cially chartered to accompany the squadron.
 AS soon as the natives ashore learned that the Spaniards had been driven out of Cavite they began coming in crowds to pillage Finally they became so bold 1-. -x1.- 1