The explosive shells from the forts fell wide of the ships. The last one fired from the shore was from Point Rubalcaya. The monitor Puritan let go with a shot from one of her twelve-inch guns, and its effect was seen when a part of the fortification went into the air. The battery at Maya was the stronger of the two and its fire more constant, but all its shells failed to hit our ships.
The target practice of the flagship was an inspiring sight. At every shot from her batteries, clouds of dust and big pieces of stone showed where the Spanish forts were suffering. The New York, after reducing the range from over six thousand to three thousand yards, fired shells at the rate of three a minute into the enemy's forts, each one creating havoc. The Puritan took equally good care of Point Maya. When she succeeded in getting the range, her gunners landed a shell inside the works at every shot.
When permission was given to the Cincinnati to take part in the first battle between Yankee and Spanish forces, the cruiser came up to within 2,000 yards of the shore, and almost immediately her guns were at work. Cadet Boone on the flagship fired the first gun in answer to the Spanish batteries.
The Spanish mail steamer Argonauta, Captain Lage, was convoyed into Key West harbor by the United States cruiser Marblehead on May 3. Colonel Vicente De Cortijo of the Third Spanish cavalry, who, with nineteen other army officers, was taken on the prize, is a brother-in-law of Lieutenant General Valeriano Weyler. Colonel De Cortijo and the other officers were transferred to the Guido and the privates to the Ambrosio Bolivar, two other trophies of the first week of the war.
The Argonauta herself was no mean prize, being of 1,000 tons burden, but the value of the capture was mainly in the prisoners of war and the mail matter going to General Blanco. Her cargo was general merchandise, with a large quantity of ammunition and supplies for the Spanish troops in Cuba.
THE SITUATION IN HAVANA.
A correspondent wrote from Havana, on the 3d of May, as follows:
"The dispatch boat succeeded again to-day in opening communication with Havana, and your correspondent brought away with him the morning papers of yesterday.
"The City of Havana is a sad sight. There are still a few of the reconcentrados about the streets now, but starvation has ended the misery of most of them, and their bones have been thrown into the trenches outside of the city.
"Starvation now faces the Spanish citizens themselves. Havana is a graveyard. Two-thirds of the inhabitants have fled. The other third is beginning to feel the pangs of hunger.