Naval action now shifts almost entirely to the Caribbean. Until in the last days of the war there was to be in the Pacific no further special naval movement beyond the seizure of Guam by the _Charleston_ on June 11th and the sending to Manila the monitors _Monterey_ and _Monadnock_ to reinforce Dewey. The first of the army sailed from San Francisco on May 28th. The departure of Cervera from the Cape Verdes caused Admiral Sampson to move from Havana east 970 miles to San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the expectancy of finding there the Spanish fleet. This move was based upon the view that as it was but from 1,200 to 1,400 miles from San Juan to important points on our coast, it was an absolute necessity to make sure that if the Spanish squadron arrived there it should not be allowed to leave and be free to raid our seaboard. Sampson’s prescience was right. Cervera’s orders were to go there and then do as he thought best. Had he not himself been so slow in crossing the Atlantic, Sampson would have found him at San Juan, and the Spanish fleet would have been destroyed on May 12th instead of July 3d. Continuous breakdowns of the two monitors accompanying Sampson caused such delay that his squadron was not off San Juan until May 12th. An attack on the fortifications began at 5 A.M., and continued for three hours, when Sampson withdrew with no damage to the ships and with the loss of one man killed and four wounded aboard the _New York_. As Cervera was clearly not in port, and as it was necessary not to risk overmuch the American ships before he could be met, it was thought inadvisable to continue the action, though as known later the place was ready to surrender to another attack. As Cervera was much overdue and no word had as yet been received of his whereabouts, the American squadron stood west (with a view to covering Havana), sending into St. Thomas, only sixty miles to the east, for news. It was not until in the early morning of May 15th, off Puerto Plata, that word came of Cervera’s having reached Curaçao. At the same time a dispatch from Washington was received by Sampson informing him that the Flying Squadron was en route to Key West and directing Sampson himself to proceed there with all possible dispatch. * * * * * Cervera had arrived off Martinique on the evening of May 11th and had sent in a destroyer for news, which brought next morning the word of Sampson’s being off Puerto Rico. Unable now to go to San Juan without meeting the American fleet, a council of war was called, and on its decision Cervera shaped his course for Curaçao in search of coal, leaving the destroyer _Terror_, whose boilers had given out, at Martinique. Leaving Curaçao in the evening of May 15th, he entered the harbor of Santiago de Cuba at dawn on May 19th.