After a few hours' fighting, with a curious interval when the Americans withdrew and breakfasted, Dewey completed the destruction or capture of the Spanish fleet, and found himself the victor with his own ships uninjured and in full fighting trim.

By the 3d of May, the naval station at Cavite and the batteries at the entrance of Manila Bay were in the hands of Commodore Dewey, and the Asiatic squadron had wrested a safe and commodious harbor from the enemy.
Secure for the moment and free, Dewey found himself in as precarious a strategic position as has ever confronted a naval officer.

With his six war vessels and 1707 men, he was unsupported and at least a month's voyage from America.

It was two months, indeed, before any American troops or additional ships reached him.

Meanwhile the Spaniards held Manila, and a Spanish fleet, formidable under the circumstances, began to sail for the Philippines.