The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1896-11-05

Manila is one of the PHILIPPINE Islands
and is in very warm climate. The
death roll, at the time 1 was there, was
five day, all from smallpox, but moth.
ing prevented our going ashore and we
were very anxious to see all we could
AS soon as the ship dropped her anchor
[ went ashore. This is lovely city
and has some beautiful buildings and q
large open harbor, in which you can
see an American sailing ship at any
time of the year, loading with tobacco,
cigars and boxes. Manila belongs to
Spain. You can see chicken fight al
most any time on the street.
The street cars are drawn by horses
and the charges are very small. I went
to Spanish show while in the city
and / saw weasel kill so many chick
ems in so many minutes, and other
blood thirsty sights, all OF which were
loudly applauded by all who were pres
ent. The natives think the "Yanks''
are all rich, and they are very kind to
us. They can't speak English, but you
can understand them by their motions.
Fruit grows in abundance here. To-
bacco raising and the manufacture of
cigars are the main industries of the
country. This city is very low and flat
and is very hard to drain, therefore it
is unhealthy, for the stagnant water
stands in the cutters all over the city.
When we left Manila we had our
orders to proceed at once to the Be-
hiring Sea which is in Alaska. We ar
rived there after fifteen days passage,
having two suns on the way upon cross
ing the hundred and eightleth parallel
from West to East. We lost a day In
going and In coming back we will gain
a day. Our object in going to the Be-
hiring Sea was to protect the seal rook-
cries from poachers. America and En-
gland own these waters There is linn
tied distance for the schooners to hunt
seals, which is sixty miles from land,
and II they are caught any nearer to
land they are punished to the extent
of the law. They are not allowed to
carry guns or ammunition. We over
hauled lots of sealing schooners and
sealed up their guns and ammunition.
We made only one seizure and that |
was Canadian schooner, the EVAN
derer," which had 478 seal skins and |
was only six miles from land.
Many amusing incidents happened
during my stay there. We lost two
men who went hunting in a crowd of
81. They were lost in the dense fog.
We hunted for them two days and |
nights before we found them. I was
the first to see them, by being on the
right flank, which was near the waters
edge. We had 26O men as skirmish-
ers and were twenty or thirty yards
apart, and we searched faithfully until |
we found them.
We received compliments from the
of the Navy, for the manner
in which we arranged our searching
party. Many lives are lost yearly in
the Behring Sea in the same manner.
The fog is very thick and there is
about one fair day in every twenty, all
the year around. One OF our men kill
ed very large cinnamon bear and we
dressed him nicely and had some of his
meat cooked, but we could not eat 1t,
because it was too tishy. Our head
quarters were at Unalaska, small town
situated near Dutch harbor.
This is one of the most important
ports In Northern Alaska and has a
very large harbor surrounded by three
high barren hills. This place has a
very large Indian trade and many large
sealing schooners are fitted out there.
The seasons are very short In Alaska
md no vegetation grows there except
species of bunch grass, &c. There are
great many reindeer on the Island.
They were put here by the government.
Here is where the Goldfish and salmon
ire caught in abundance and canned
1p and shipped to all parts of the
United States by ship loads. There
ire many large canning factories in
Alaska.
The climate is very cold and damp
it is very healthy country.
c.. T. CURRIE.