The St. Johns herald., 1899-08-26
NEW DEWEY STORY.
rhe Famous Admiral Nearly Started
 Another War with Mexico.

! E Another War with Mexico.
 "In May, 1875, Admiral Dewey was commander of the old Narragansett," :"
 said Lieutenant Winslow, "and he was
 detailed to surveying the Gulf of Cali 1 fornia and the shores of the coast of i the peninsula. It was not long after 1 the Virginius affair at Santiago, and | the feeling toward the Mexicans and 1 Cubans was none too cordial. The
 Narragansett reached La Paz. near the
 southern end of the peninsula, and we
 no sooner got ashore than we heard
 that an American mining engineer and i some Englishmen who owned the mine were prisoners in their mining shan i ties, forty miles back of La Paz, in
 the mountains. The American had re- sented an insult, quarrel followed, and the American killed two MeXicans.
 The friends of the latter swOre they'd kill the Yankee and the Eng1ishmen, too, and the latter were soon obliged
 to barricade themselves. This siege had been on for several days when we dropped anchor.
 "As soon as Commander Dewey heard of it he was very much inter- ested. The next day he sent a mes senger to the Mexican colonel in La Paz, who had a garrison of 600 sol diers there, asking him what he was going to do to give the American trial before he was shot.
 "'Oh, he got into the trouble-let him get out said the Mexican.
 Commander Dewey didn't like this reply, and the more he thought about It the angrier he got. The next fore noon he sent a note to the Mexican colonel telling him that an American citizens life was in danger, and that the man was entitled to a fair trial. He told the colonel that he would al- low him 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 done we were all frightened.
 "'Does he mean it? we asked one another
 "As for myself, was soon satisfied that he meant every word of it. l was In command of the guns. We had only two old hOwitzers on the Narragansett, the larger guns having been left tenn 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 O. La Paz and trained the hOwitzers on the town. By next morn ing we were all ready to begin a sec ond 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. diers 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 to Washington on the matter he minimized the importance of it. and | It was passed over as a mere incident. | Harris and Wright were on the Narragansett then, and Harris, | at least, was with the fleet at Manila | It is somewhat singular that at that | time, when we were expecting a dec laration of war against Spain on ac- count of the Virginius affair, Com mander Dewey had his plans all made to sail the Narragansett to Manila."- New York Tribune.