From the outbreak of war the German China Squadron, as we now know, was never wholly dispersed: Spee detached ships from time to time to the coast of South America, but remained himself with the strongest part of his force in the Pacific, where he was heard of only at intervals. He might possibly be intending to go westwards and raid the Indian Ocean, as the _Emden_ actually did. He moved, in fact, on Samoa, but when he arrived there on September 14, 1914, he found Apia already safe in the hands of the New Zealanders, and not a ship in the harbour. He left again for Suvarov Island, coaled in the Society Islands, bombarded the French capital Papieté on the 22nd September, and appeared to be making for South America; he might be thinking of a dash through the Magellan Straits to attack our trade on the eastern coast. The British Admiralty knew the danger of this. Spee’s two principal ships—the _Scharnhorst_ and the _Gneisenau_—were fast ships and well armed, with prize gunnery crews. To hunt them satisfactorily a pair of battle-cruisers were required, and these could not well be spared from the Grand Fleet. The _Indefatigable_ was therefore ordered out from the Mediterranean, with the fast cruiser _Defence_; but the Cabinet refused to spare the _Indefatigable_, and the _Canopus_, an old and slow battleship, with 12-inch guns, was sent, with the _Defence_ to follow. Admiral Cradock was ordered to concentrate meanwhile at the Falkland Islands, with his flagship, the _Good Hope_, the cruisers _Monmouth_ and _Glasgow_, and some ships of inferior armament. The _Canopus_ was a whole week late in arriving. Cradock was most anxious to prevent Spee from coming round the Horn to raid the east coast, and he feared that if he kept the old 12-knot battleship with him he might be too late to bar the enemy’s passage. In this crisis he took his first great risk: he sent the _Canopus_ by the shorter way, through Magellan’s Straits, and took the weaker ships boldly round the Horn. Spee, however, was not in the south; he had spent six days in concentrating at Easter Island, and was at this moment making for the island of Mas-a-Fuera, 500 miles west of Valparaiso. Cradock now had the _Canopus_ with him again. His instructions were that he was not expected to act without her; but her slow speed continued to hamper him in carrying out his definite orders to search for the enemy and destroy them. He accordingly ordered the _Defence_ to join him from the east coast, where she had been sent by the Admiralty, and went north in the meantime to find the cruiser _Leipzig_, which was believed to be in front of him, operating alone. Unfortunately the _Canopus_ was once more in need of repairs, and had to be left behind for twenty-four hours. [Illustration: Battle of Coronel.]