The Navy Department made public a cablegram from Admiral Dewey:
“The insurgents are acting energetically in the province of Cavite. During the past week they have won several victories, and have taken prisoners about eighteen hundred men and fifty officers of the Spanish troops, not natives. The arsenal of Cavite is being prepared for occupation by United States troops on the arrival of the transports.”
Cablegrams from Hongkong announced that the [pg 175]insurgents had cut the railway lines and were closing in on Manila. Frequent actions between Aguinaldo’s forces and the Spaniards had taken place, and the foreign residents were making all haste to leave the city. A proclamation issued by the insurgent chief points to a desire to set up a native administration in the Philippines under an American protectorate. Aguinaldo, with an advisory council, would hold the dictatorship until the conquest of the islands, and would then establish a republican assembly.
June 7. The monitor Monterey and the collier Brutus sailed from San Francisco for Manila. The double-turreted monitor Monadnock has been ordered to set out for the same port within ten days.
June 9. The Spanish bark Maria Dolores, laden with coal and patent fuel, was captured by the cruiser Minneapolis twelve miles off San Juan de Porto Rico.
June 10. A battalion of marines was landed in the harbour of Guantanamo, forty miles east of Santiago.[3]
A blockhouse at Daiquiri shelled by the transport steamer Panther.[4]
June 11–12. Attack upon American marines in Guantanamo Bay by Spanish regulars and guerillas.[5]
June 11. The British steamer Twickenham, laden with coal for Admiral Cervera’s fleet, was captured off San Juan de Porto Rico by the U. S. S. St. Louis.
June 12. Major-General Merritt issued orders to the [pg 176]officers assigned to the second Philippine expedition, to the effect that they must be ready to embark their troops not later than the fifteenth instant.