And all this speculation, as a matter of fact, was not so wild as it now may seem. It was known that the Spanish torpedo flotilla had rendezvoused at the Cape Verde Islands on March 24th, where it was joined on April 14th by the _Infanta Maria Teresa_ and _Cristobal Colon_, and later, on the 20th, by the _Vizcaya_ and _Almirante Oquendo_. On the 22d of April this formidable squadron was ordered to sea, and on the 29th it sailed—to a destination then unknown to any one on this side of the Atlantic. During the four anxious weeks that followed, this threatening fleet was lost to sight; and throughout this month of uncertainty, as Spears, the historian of the Navy in its latest war, rightly says, "Not only was it a mysterious squadron in its movements: to a large part of our along-shore population it was positively fearsome. And there was good reason, when the makeup of the squadron only is considered, for vigilance, if not for alarm, in our more weakly fortified harbors. Where it would make a landfall was a question, for the whole United States coast was, in a way, open to attack." An added element of uncertainty was to be found in the announcement made by Sagasta, on April 24th: "The Spanish Government, reserving its right to grant letters of marque, will at present confine itself to organizing, with the vessels of the mercantile marine, a force of auxiliary cruisers, which will coöperate with the navy, according to the needs of the campaign, and will be under naval control." It was believed that Spain, in accordance with this policy, had taken and armed a number of able, sea-going steamers, and the legitimate inference was that they were to be employed in attacks on our commerce, or in sudden descents upon our open ports, rather than in fights with our own cruisers. As a matter of fact, during the months of May and June, the people dwelling along the coast were much in the condition of the small boy who is troubled by "seein' things at night," and apparently the masters of incoming vessels were laboring under a like affliction. A very careful record of the Spanish apparitions by which the coast was haunted at this time was kept by an officer of the First, and to read it at this late day is to become convinced that the newspaper buyers of 1898 most certainly got their money's worth. It is a weird catalogue of rumors, from the tale of the mysterious cannonading heard at Eastport to the reported sighting of the "three long, low, rakish craft, sailing in column formation, and signalling by masthead lights as they steadily held their course in the darkness"—which might have fitted a Spanish squadron, but yet was equally applicable to the case of a tow of coal-barges on its way around the Cape to Boston. [Illustration: Photograph by W. H. Caldwell, Brockton. 8-INCH RIFLE BATTERY, FORT WARREN. Covering Main Ship Channel, Boston Harbor. ]