Arizona silver belt., 1898-07-07
Sampson Victorious. HE DESTROYS CERvERA's FLEET
 AT SANTIAGO.
Dewey's Feat Duplicated.

A Now York Herald copyrighted spe- cial says: Santiago de Cuba, July 4. Five vessels of Admiral Cervera's fleet have been destroyed by Sampson's B squadron. None of the American ves- sels have been lost. Santiago is likely to be surrendered to Shafter in . few hours. The Spanish admiral driven wild by the steady advance of our troops upon Santiago and tho evident intention of the commander of our squadron 70 force his way into the har- Dor to give battle, attempted the for. lorn hope last (Saturday) evening His fleet pushed its way around the sunkeh wreck of the Merrimac came out to sea in bold effort to run past our squadron and escape or to give battle.
 Sampson's ships were ready for them and the first Spanish ship had not poked its nose a dozen yards beyond the narrow entrance before she was seen by our watchful lookouts. A mo- ment later the admiral himself having been informed of the news was on the deck of his flagship signalling orders to the commanders to close in around the mouth of the harbor and out of Cerve- ra's escape. The entire American fleet moved forward within a dozen minutes and in less than quarter of an hour every vessel was crowding past Morro castle and close up to the hsrbor, firing steadily as they advanced with their orews Justify cheering because the mo. ment for which they had 80 long waited had at last arrived. There was tre- mendous fire from the vessels in Ad- miral Cervsra's squadron as they stead fly advanced and the shells fell all around the American warships. But their fire did little damage compared with the tremendous destruction by the guns on the American warships. The l3 inch shells of our big battleships fell with deadly effect upon the SpaniIh ships the aim of our gunners being al- most perfect in spite of the clouds of smoke that rolled up around the fleet. The heat was stifling but the officers and men kept their places showing splendid bravery. So perfect was the aim of our gunners that the threc Spanish cruisers were soon utterly de- stroyed. Just what ones was not known positively. Then the Spsnisrds became desperate and headed two tor pedo boat dsstroyers for the beach in order to save the crews. They are now aground on the beach, complete wrecks. As the New York Herald s dispatch boat left to send this glorious Fourth of July news it was reported that more Spanish ships were coming from the eastward. It could not be learned what vessels they were. All the armor clads under Sampson began crowding into Santiago hsrbor this Saturday. evening at sundown. As the ships passed Nero osstle it seem ed that all the American guns were firing.
 The Infanta Maria, Teresa, Almiran- te Oquendo and Vizcsya were forced ashore burned aud blown up within 20 miles of Santiago. The Furore and Pluto were destroyed within four miles of the port. Our loss, one killed and two wounded. The enemy's loss prob- ably several hundred from gun fire, explosions and drowning and about 1900 prisoners including Admiral Ger vera. The man killed was George II. Ellis, chief yeoman of the Brooklyn.
 WASHINGTON, July 5-The result of the cabinet mseting today was that in structions were sent by the president to Admiral Sampson and General Shafter to confer together concerning joint plsn of sttsck upon the city. Upon the outcome of this conference depends the line of action for the immediate flu turs. For the present the land bom- bardment by General Shafter's forces has been deferred as the situation is so completely changed by the annihilation of the Spanish fleet that it is manifestly the part of wisdom for this land bonn bardment to await the cooperation and support of bombsrdnsent from Admir- al Sampson's fees. Up to the close of office hours today no word had come either to the war or navy departments 50 far as was disclosed ss to what de- termination had been reached at the conference of Admiral Sampson and General Shaftor.
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