Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1899-07-21
NEW DEWEY STO9y
nc amous Admiral Nearly star+sd
Another War with MoIioo

ous admiral Nearly Started
nother War with Mexico.
III May, 1915, Admiral Dewey vos
commander Of the old Nalrogonsatt, >,
salu Lieutenant Winslow. "and he WAS
uetaned TO surveying the Gulf of Cali.
Iorllla and the shores of the coast of
Ihe peninsula. 1t was not lone of+ar
tne Iirginius affair at Santiago and
Ine leellhg toward the Mexicaus and
ouoahS was none too cordial Tho
NarlaSahSett reached La Paz, near tba
southern end of the peninsula and ,vo
uo sooner got ashore than we heard
'hat an American mining engineer and
some Englishmen who owned the mina
were prisoners in their MINING shan
ties' forty miles back of La Paz, in
the mountains. The American had re.
Sehted an insult, a quarrel followed
ana the American killed two Neyicons
Inc ne friends of the latter swore they'd
XIII the Yankee and the Englishmen,
TOO, and the latter were soon Obliged
TO barricade themselves. This siege
mad been on for several days when we
dropped anchor.
AS soon as Commander Dewev
heard Of it he was very much inter
ested, The next day he sent a mes
Senger to the Mexican colonel in La
faZ, who had garrison of GOO SOL
llers there, asking him what he was
gong to do to give the American a
trial before he was shot.
"'Oh, he got into the trouble--let hin,
get out, said the Mexican.
Commander Dewey didn't like this
reply, and the more he thought about
't the angrier he got. The next fore
noon he sent a note to the Mexican
colonel telling him that an American
cltlzens S life was in danger, and that
the man was entitled to fair trial.
lie told the colonel that he would al
low MIN just twenty-four hours to res.
cue the American and protect the En-.
glishmen. If at the end of that time
relief was rot on its way to the little
mining party he would lombard La
Paz and burn it.
when we heard what Dewey had
lone we were all frightened.
Does he mean itY we asked one
another.
las for myself, l was soon satisfied
that he meant every word of it. | was
In command Of the guns. We had only
two old howitzers on the Narragansett,
the larger guns having been left TEN.
porarily at the Mare Island navy yard.
"'Get those howitzers ready for to.
morrow morning and inspect all the
small arms and ammunition said
Dewey to me. Then he called the men
to quarters and estimated that of the
crew of about 120 we could land ninety
able, armed men as a storming force.
We drilled the men all that afternoon
and far into the night. That night. on
Commander Dewey'S order, we steam
ed to a point commanding the princi
pal streets c. La PaZ and trained the
lowitzers on the town. By next morn
ng we were all ready to begin a Sec
0nd war against Mexico.
"At daybreak a Mexican corporal
came on board with a message from
his colonel saying that the Narragan-
sett commanders request would be
complied with. Early that morning
we watched 300 armed Mexican sol
1iers start for the mining camp, and
we kept the old howitzers trained on
La Paz till the soldiers returned with
the American engineer When Dewey
reported to Washington on the matter
he minimized the Importance of it, and
It was passed over as a mere incident.
Lieutenants Harris and Wright were
On the Narragansett then, and Harris,
at least, was with the fleet at Manila.
1t is somewhat singular that at that
time, when we were expecting a dec
Iaration of war against Spain on ac-
count Of the Virginius affair, Com
mander Dewey had his plans all made
20 sail the Narragansett to Manila
New York Tribune.