At 5.50 general quarters was sounded, and the flag-ship headed in toward Aguadores, about three miles east of Morro Castle. The other ships retained their blockading stations. Along the surf-beaten shore the smoke of an approaching train from Altares was seen. It was composed of open cars full of General Duffield's troops.
At a cutting a mile east of Aguadores the train stopped, and the Cuban scouts proceeded along the railroad track. The troops got out of the cars, and soon formed in a long, thin line, standing out vividly against the yellow rocks that rose perpendicularly above, shutting them off from the main body of the army, which was on the other side of the hill, several miles north.
From the quarter of the flag-ship there was a signal, by a vigorously wigwagged letter, and a few minutes later, from a clump of green at the water's edge, came an answer from the army. This was the first coöperation for offensive purposes between the army and navy. The landing of the army at Daiquiri and Altares was purely a naval affair.
With the flag in his hand, the soldier ashore looked like a butterfly.
"Are you waiting for us to begin?" was the signal made by Rear-Admiral Sampson to the army.
"General Duffield is ahead with the scouts," came the answer from the shore to the flag-ship.
By this time it was seven A. M. The admiral ran the flag-ship's bow within three-quarters of a mile of the beach. She remained almost as near during the forenoon, and the daring way she was handled by Captain Chadwick, within sound of the breakers, made the Cuban pilot on board stare with astonishment.
The _Suwanee_ was in company with the flag-ship, still closer inshore, and the _Gloucester_ was to the westward, near Morro Castle. From the southward the _Newark_ came up and took a position to the westward. Her decks were black with fifteen hundred or more troops.
She went alongside of the flag-ship, and was told to disembark the troops at Altares.
Then Admiral Sampson signalled to General Duffield:
"When do you want us to commence firing?"
In a little while a white flag on shore sent back the answer:
"When the rest of the command arrives; then I will signal you."
It was a long and tedious wait for the ships before the second fifty car-loads of troops came puffing along from Altares.