Upon July 27th, 1914, while lying at Rio de Janeiro her captain received the first intimation that the strain in Europe might result in war between England and Germany. Upon July 29th the warning became more urgent, and upon July 31st the activity of the German merchant ships in the harbour showed that they also had been notified of the imminence of hostilities. They loaded coal and stores into certain selected vessels to their utmost capacity, and clearly purposed to employ them as supply ships for any of their cruisers which might be sent to the South Atlantic. At that time there were, as a matter of fact, no German cruisers nearer than the east coast of Mexico. The _Karlsruhe_ had just come out to relieve the _Dresden_, which had been conveying refugees of the Mexican Revolution to Kingston, Jamaica. Thence she sailed for Haiti, met there the _Karlsruhe_, and made the exchange of captains on July 27th. Both these cruisers were ordered to remain, but a third German cruiser in Mexican waters, the _Strassburg_, rushed away for home and safely got back to Germany before war was declared on August 4th. Thus the _Dresden_ and _Karlsruhe_ were left, and over against them in the West Indies lay Rear-Admiral Cradock with four “County” cruisers—_Suffolk_, _Essex_, _Lancaster_, and _Berwick_ (sisters of the _Monmouth_)—and the fast cruiser _Bristol_, a sister of the _Glasgow_. Though the _Glasgow_, lying alone at Rio, had many anxieties—chiefly at first turning upon that question of supply which governs the movements of war ships in the outer seas—she had no reason to expect an immediate descent of the _Dresden_ and _Karlsruhe_ from the north. Cradock could look after them if they had not the good luck to evade his attentions. Upon August 1st, the _Glasgow_ was cleared for war, and all luxuries and superfluities, all those things which make life tolerable in a small cruiser, were ruthlessly cast forth and put into store at Rio. She was well supplied with provisions and ammunition, but coal, as it always is, was an urgent need—not only coal for the immediate present, but for the indefinite future. For immediate necessities the _Glasgow_ bought up the cargo of a British collier in Rio, and ordered her captain to follow the cruiser when she sallied forth. Upon August 3rd, the warnings from home became definite, the _Glasgow_ coaled and took in oil till her bunkers were bursting, made arrangements with the English authorities in Rio for the transmission of telegrams to the secret base which she proposed to establish, and late in the evening of August 4th, crept out of Rio in the darkness with all lights out. During that fourth day of August the passing minutes seemed to stretch into years. The anchorage where the _Glasgow_ lay was in the outer harbour, and she was continually passed by German merchant steamers crowding in to seek the security of a neutral port. War was very near. [Illustration: THE CRUISE OF THE “GLASGOW.”]