The weather from the time of leaving Port Tampa continued fine until the fleet entered the passage between the western coast of Hayti and the eastern end of Cuba, known as the Windward Passage, when the breeze freshened and a rough sea began, continuing more or less up to the time of landing. Rounding this eastern coast of Cuba the fleet headed its course westerly and on the morning of the 20th was able to determine its position as being off Guantanamo Bay, about fifty miles east of Santiago. Here, eight days before, the first battle on Cuban soil, in which four American marines were killed, had been fought. About noon on the same day, the fleet came to a halt off Santiago harbor, or a little to the west of the entrance to it, and Admiral Sampson came on board. He and General Shafter soon after went ashore to consult the Cuban General, Garcia, who was known to be in that vicinity with about 4,000 well armed troops. The voyage over, and the men having been crowded together on shipboard for nearly two weeks, it was now expedient to get them on shore as soon as possible. But it was necessary to find out beforehand what defences were along the coast, and what forces of the enemy were likely to be encountered in landing. The fleet lay off from the shore about a mile, and it was no small undertaking to convey the 17,000 men on board with all their arms and equipments to the shore in small boats over a rough sea, especially should the landing be disputed. It was to arrange for the landing and also to map out a general plan of campaign that the three great leaders, Shafter, Sampson and Garcia met at Aserradores on the afternoon of June 20th as the American fleet stood guard over the harbor of Santiago. General Garcia was already aware of the coming of the fleet, having received a message from Major-General Miles two weeks previous. The letter of General Miles ran as follows: Headquarters of the Army, In the Field, Tampa, Fla., June 2, 1898. Dear General:--I am very glad to have received your officers, General Enrique Collazo and Lieut.-Col. Carlos Hernandez, the latter of whom returns to-night with our best wishes for your success. It would be a very great assistance if you could have as large a force as possible in the vicinity of the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, and communicate any information by signals which Colonel Hernandez will explain to you either to our navy or to our army on its arrival, which we hope will be before many days.