Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/261

Rh Civil War, and was a man of quick action. Without delay he coaled his vessels, and on April 27 left Chinese waters, bound for the Philippines. He expected to have no easy task of finding the Spanish fleet, for the Philippines, as said before, are about twelve hundred in number, and there are harbors, big and little, innumerable.

The commodore's squadron consisted of four cruisers, the Olympia, Boston, Baltimore, and Raleigh, three gunboats, the Concord, Petrel, and a small craft named the McCulloch, and two coaling vessels. The largest craft was the Olympia, of fifty-eight hundred tons, which was Dewey's flagship.

The course was for the island of Luzon, the largest by far of the group, and the one upon which is located Manila, the chief city. The run to Luzon took but a few days, and the first stop made was at Subic Bay, a few miles west of Manila Bay. No Spanish warships were sighted, and then Commodore Dewey steered straight for Manila.

The bay of Manila is large, with a very narrow entrance. Corregidor Island partly blocks the channel, and upon this island