We have detailed accounts of the action from the German side, of which the best was written by von Spee himself on the following day. There is nothing of boasting or vainglory about his simple story: though the man was German he seems to have been white all through. I have heard much of him from those who knew him intimately, and willingly accept his narrative as a plain statement of fact. Given the conditions, the speed and powers of the opposing squadrons, the skilful preliminary manœuvres of von Spee before a shot was fired, and the veil of darkness which hid the German ships from the luckless English gunners, the result, as von Spee reveals it, was inevitable. He held his fire until after sunset, and then closing in to about 10,000 yards—a little over five miles—gave the order to begin. He himself led the line in the _Scharnhorst_ and engaged the _Good Hope_, the _Gneisenau_ following him took the _Monmouth_ as her opposite number. The _Leipzig_ engaged the _Glasgow_, and the _Dresden_ the _Otranto_. The shell from the 8.2-inch batteries of the German armoured cruisers—each could use six guns on a broadside—got home at the second salvo and the range was kept without apparent difficulty. The fires which almost immediately broke out in the _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_ gave much aid to the German gunners, who, when the quick darkness of the southern night came down, were spared the use of their searchlights. “As the two big enemy ships were in flames,” writes one careful German observer, “we were able to economise our searchlights.” Then, closing in to about 5,000 yards, von Spee poured in a terrific fire so rapid and sustained that he shot away nearly half his ammunition. After fifty-two minutes from the firing of the first shell the _Good Hope_ blew up. “She looked,” wrote von Spee, “like a splendid firework display against a dark sky. The glowing white flames, mingled with bright green stars, shot up to a great height.” Cradock’s flagship then sank, though von Spee thought for long afterwards that she was still afloat. The _Otranto_ had made her escape, but the _Monmouth_, which could not get away, and the _Glasgow_—which at any moment could have shown the enemy her heels—still continued the unequal fight. The night had become quite dark, the flames in the _Monmouth_ had burned out or been extinguished, and the Germans had lost sight of their prey. The _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_ worked round to the south, and the _Leipzig_ and _Dresden_ were sent curving to the north and west, in order to keep the English ships away from the shelter of the land. Just then the light cruiser _Nürnberg_, which had been sent upon the scouting expedition of which I have told, arrived upon the scene of action and encountered the crippled _Monmouth_. Had the English cruiser been undamaged, she could soon have disposed of this new combatant, but she was listing heavily and unable to use her guns. Running up close the