Leaving Kiao Chao during July, the war had found von Spee and the two larger cruisers many leagues distant among the Western Pacific islands and separated by thousands of miles from the other three cruisers, the _Dresden_, the _Nürnberg_, and the _Leipzig_. Of these the _Dresden_ was in the Atlantic, divided from the other two by the American continent, and narrowly escaped capture at the hand of the British West Atlantic Squadron, of which Admiral Cradock was then in command. She successfully evaded him, however, and, making her way south, entered South American waters off the coast of Brazil, where her only possible antagonist at the time was the British cruiser _Glasgow_--a light cruiser of the _Bristol_ class, displacing about 4,800 tons, capable of a speed of 25 knots, and carrying two 6-inch and ten 4-inch guns. {48} Meanwhile, on August 11th, with all her lights out, there had crept out of the port of Pernambuco a German steamer, the _Baden_, carrying 5,000 tons of coal, which met and supplied the _Dresden_ at the Rocas Islands. Three days afterward, the latter sank the _Hyades_, homeward bound from the River Plate to Holland with a load of grain, and, on August 26th, she sank the British steamer _Holmwood_, also off the coast of South America. A fortnight later, on her way to the Pacific, the _Dresden_ and her collier were creeping round Tierra del Fuego, and here they met a second collier, the _Santa Isabel_, which had left Buenos Aires on the 6th of August, nominally bound for Togo. That was in the middle of September, and, about a fortnight later, with her name effaced, her masts altered, and her funnels repainted, the _Santa Isabel_ entered Valparaiso, remaining there until the end of the month, when she cleared, nominally for Hamburg, but in reality to join von Spee. In the meantime the _Dresden_ had announced her arrival in the Pacific by attacking the liner _Ortega_ near the western entrance of the Magellan Straits; and it was only by the resource and seamanship of the latter's captain that the British ship succeeded in escaping. Bound for Valparaiso with 300 French reservists on board, she had a normal speed of no more than 14 knots, while the _Dresden_, as we have seen, was at least half as fast again. But the Master of the _Ortega_ was not to be beaten. Calling for volunteers to assist the stokers, he succeeded in working his old liner up to 18 knots an hour, and at the same time headed for {49} Nelson's Strait--a perilous and uncharted passage. Chased by the _Dresden_, and with her shells plunging on each side of him, he made the dangerous channel in safety. The _Dresden_ turned on her heel, afraid to follow him; and he successfully navigated, probably for the first time in history, an 8,000-ton liner through Nelson's Strait.