Excerpt from The Downfall of Spain: Naval History of the Spanish American War Innumerable works have already been written upon the Spanish-American War. I can only plead as my excuse for adding one to the number, that the present work was almost completed in the autumn of 1898, before this flood of books and articles had issued from the press. It was, however, delayed from time to time by the necessity of re-writing first this and then that portion, in the light of fresh evidence. Thus the book has been written twice - in some chapters thrice - over. The interest of this war lies in the complete information which we possess on the American side. The United States Navy Department gives to the world freely what it knows, and does not hide its secrets away in confidential reports. On no other naval war as yet waged have we such a wealth of evidence; and hence the history of this three months' struggle is far more instructive than might a year ago have been expected. That a free and intelligent nation gains by publishing the facts cannot be disputed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.