The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions, - Including the Ladrones, Hawaii, Cuba and Porto Rico - The Eldorado of the Orient by Murat Halstead
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page 29 of 656 (04%)
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squadron that was ordered to destroy another squadron, and did it,
incidentally gathering in hand the keys of an empire in the Indies for America, because the American victor was an extraordinary man, who saw the immensity of the opportunity and improved it to the utmost, some one said: "There is the Admiral now, on the quarter-deck under the awning--the man in white, sitting alone!" The American Consul at Manila was aboard the ferry-boat, and said to the captain he would like to speak to the Admiral. The course was changed a point, and then a pause, when the Consul called, "Admiral!" And the man in white stepped to the rail and responded pleasantly to the greeting--the Consul saying: "Shall we not see you ashore now?" "No," said the man in white, in a clear voice; "I shall not go ashore unless I have to." Some one said: "This would be a good chance to go. Come with us." The man in white shook his head, and the ferryman ordered full speed, the passengers all looking steadily at the white figure until it became a speck, and the fresh arrivals were shown the objects of the greatest interest, until the wrecks of the Oriental fleet of the Spaniards were no longer visible, and there was only the white walls to see of Cavite's arsenal and the houses of the navy-yard, and the more stately structures of Manila loomed behind the lighthouse at the mouth of the Pasig, when the eyes of the curious were drawn to the mossback fort that decorates as an antiquity the most conspicuous angle of the walls of "the walled city." There was a shade of significance in the few words of the Admiral |
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