Arizona republican., 1899-01-24

ies alt the mouth and by elevation on the bay During the first moments the
 firing was so intense that it resembled
 one prolonged thunder. In fact 1 had
 no idea that any firing could be so ter rife as that Of these ten ships. Much
 has been said of the bombardments of
 Sebastopol and Alexandria, but I do not believe that they could have been
 as terrible as the 5bombardment we suf- fered that 9th day of JuGe-a day
 which the inhabitants of Santiago will
 never forget. I might write pages about it, and even that would probably
 not give the faintest idea what 1t reaE
 ly was.
 's"The hostile ships had at least 120 large guns, that is to say, of IA, 20 and 32 cm. calibers, and about eighty small caliber guns, that is to say, of 57 and AZ
 nm, or total of 192 guns, for they
 fired with guns of all sizes; and as am far from wanting to eXagg=rate and since the guns of the two sides of
 ship cannot be fired at the same time
 (thOse mounted in turrets forward and
 aft can), I will say that ninety-one guns were firing upon four 16-cm. muz- zle-loading guns at the Morro and two 16-cm. breech-loading Hontoria guns of the Socapa battery.
 T do not count the guns of the Punta Gorda battery, which fired only eleven shots; for the Americans, in spite of their enormious superiority, still had the-prudence of avoiding it, and not engaging it because it was not in line. Before the eloquence Of num- bers, anything else that l might say becomes unnecessary.
 How dld It happen that the Moro was not razed to the ground, and that it's guns and those of the Socapa were not dismounted? How did it happen that those who served these guns were not buried under the ruins? 1 do not know; that is all can say; and those who were in those forts may be sure that, since they were not killed that day, they will die of old age.
 Captain Concas, who is very clever at computations of certain nature, counted at different times the number of shots fired in a minute, and his de- duction was that about 5000 projectiles were fired; though this figure may ap- pear exaggerated at first sight, it is not so in reality; the firing lasted 175 which would give an average :! of forty-five shots per minute. I be- | lieve, if anything, the computation falls ! below the truth.
 "I have always believed that the | fleet, which, by means of the yacht re- | ferred to, communicated with the in on the coast by way of Punta Cabrera, knew everything that was go- | ing on in Santiago as well as in the ! harbOr, and the position of our ships. | But if I had any doubts on that sub ject, they would have been diSpelled i that 9th day of June when 1 saw the aim of their projectiles. Most of them dropped in the bay in the direction of the Maria Teresa and Vizcaya, which were covering the first line, and it was a miracle that both of them were not damaged; for the largest shells fell all around them; there were when it seemed as though some had hit them, especially the Viz ,aya.
 ''They were also perfectly acquainted with the position of the Mercedes, which is proved by the fact that the hips to the east, being the division which bombarded the Morro, were fir ng their projectiles right at the crui- ger, and though protected by the hill if the Soeapa, she received in her hull md rigging thirty-fve shells, causing <.