Show venezuelans BOMBARDED AND GERMANS ATTACK CA BELLO FORTRESS venezuelans attempt to reply bat rat their old gung guns are soon pat put oat out of ao tion N no 0 dau dan age waa was done to the town A dispatch from puerto cabello dated december 13 says the british cruiser and the german cruiser vineta have bombarded the fortress here they quickly silenced it the and the vineta ar or rived here this morning the captain of the english merchant steamer topaz which was seized by the mob last wednesday visited the english commodore on board the and returned an hour later with a de lach tach ment of fifty marines who took charge of the topaz the populace was greatly excited r et rt t this incident and raised the cry to arms but no incident occurred the english commodore then sent gent a demand to the authorities for immediate satisfaction tor for having pulled down the british flag from the topaz and advised the government that if satisfaction was not forthcoming in two hours the fortress and he custom house would be bombarded the authorities on the rec receipt of this demand sent a mes sage to president castro asking for instructions at 5 0 clock the charob dis and the vineta opened fire on the fortress and custom house the tort fort replied but was soon silenced no damage was done to the town the united states consul went on board the two cruisers and was informed by their commanders that they had come to this port in search of the venezuelan warships the entrance to the inside harbor and puerto cabello Is through a nar row channel not more than a few hun dred feet wide to the left of this channel as one enters the harbor sit I 1 bated on a low sand spit Is the tor for tress which was bombarded by the british and german cruisers it Is an old fashioned structure which was re built in the eighteenth century its sides are comparatively low and would offer but poor resistance to modern shells |