The departure of the fleet bids fair to be even more spectacular than the one at Hampton Roads, only the powder and smoke, and the blare of the bands and all the rest of the show will be in honor of another President than our own. When the last gun has boomed it will mean not only good-by to President Penna and Brazil, but it will be the blackthroated response of 14,000 American sailors to Rio. The guns will declare Rio to be not only the City of All Delights but the City of All Hospitality.
Unique Meeting of United States and Argentine Ships 300 Miles From Land--Grand Naval Spectacle--High Honors for Admiral Evans and Cordial Greetings for All His Men--Fine Display of Seamanship on South American Vessels--Picturesque Incidents of the Voyage From Rio to the Most Southern City in the World-- Nature Put on Mourning as the Farewells Were Said and Signalled at Brazil's Capital--The Man-o'-War Mail From Home.
_On Board U. S. S. Louisiana, U. S. Battle Fleet_, PUNTA ARENAS, CHILE, Jan. 31.
The passage of the battle fleet from Rio to this the southernmost city of the world was marked by a marine spectacle unprecedented, so far as any one in this fleet can recall, in naval annals. A squadron of the Argentine navy came out hundreds of miles to greet our ships, and probably for the first time in the history of navies national salutes were fired upon the high seas. Squadrons and fleets have passed one another before time and time again, and honors have been exchanged, the flags of flag officers have been saluted, but after these courtesies have been finished they have gone their separate ways, all official proprieties having been observed.
But this greeting was so unusual that Admiral Evans set a new naval fashion, and after his flag had been saluted--seventeen guns, by the way; the number increases on the way around, and if the warships keep it up, each one giving the Rear Admiral more and more guns, he will soon be an Admiral of the fleet in the thundered judgment of other nations, no matter what action Congress may take--he ordered the salute of twenty-one guns for the Argentines. The Argentine ships gave full justification, for they had manned the rails on approaching our ships, an honor paid ordinarily only to the head of a nation.