“When within range of our guns, the signal ‘commence firing’ was made, and for several minutes we let fly our starboard battery at her at from fifty-five hundred to six thousand yards, the shells striking all around her. “This stopped her. She turned her broadside to us and her fire soon ceased. She then headed inshore, to the southward and westward, going slow, and it was evident to all on board that she was crippled. Off the Morro she flashed some signals to the shore, and afterward a tug came out and towed her into the harbour. “All this time the cruiser was firing at us, and some of her shots and those of the _Terror_ fell pretty close. The cruiser followed the _Terror_ back toward the port and soon afterward was joined by a gunboat, and the two steamed under the batteries to the eastward; but when the _St. Paul_, making an inshore turn, seemed to be going for them, they returned to the harbour, and we saw no more of them.” _June 23._ The U. S. monitor _Monadnock_ left San Francisco for Manila. The U. S. dynamite cruiser _Vesuvius_ again shells the Santiago fortifications.(26) _June 24._ The Spanish Cortes suspended by royal decree. The Chamber of Deputies adjourned without the customary cheers for the throne. Major-General Lawton advancing on Santiago.(27) Action near Juragua.(28) _June 25._ Skirmish near Sevilla. The American government protested a draft drawn by its consul at St. Thomas, D. W. I., under circumstances calculated to make an extremely dangerous precedent. The draft was made by Consul Van Horne for the purchase of twenty-seven hundred tons of coal, which arrived in St. Thomas in the _Ardenrose_ about the twenty-eighth of May. The consul bought it for ten dollars a ton when the Spanish consul had offered twenty dollars a ton for it. Van Horne apparently did the proper thing and did not exceed instructions. _June 26._ General Garcia with three thousand Cuban insurgents landed at Juragua by American transports.(29) The troops comprising the third expedition to Manila embarked at San Francisco. The sloop _Isabel_ arrived at Key West flying the Cuban flag. On her were Capt. Rafael Mora, Lieut. Felix de los Rios and four others of the Cuban army, carrying sealed dispatches from the Cuban government to Señor T. Estrada Palma, of the New York junta. The U. S. dynamite cruiser _Vesuvius_ shelled the fortifications at the entrance to Santiago harbour.(30) The water-supply of Santiago cut off by the American forces.(31) A Spanish fleet entered the harbour of Port Said, Egypt, at the head of the Suez Canal, on the twenty-sixth. It was composed of: Battle-ship _Pelayo_, Admiral Camara’s flag-ship. Armoured cruiser _Emperador Carlos V._ Auxiliary cruiser _Patriota_, equipped with twelve guns, and carrying troops and marines. Auxiliary cruiser _Buenos Ayres_, equipped with ten guns, and carrying stores and a few troops. Torpedo destroyer _Audaz_.