The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1898-09-19
SAN MANILA BOMBAR&D WITH THE COMMISSION RESOLUTIONS Of RESPECT 5
STORIES TOLD BY MEN OF THE
SENATOR.
Troop Ship of the Second Expedition
Returns Here-Soldiers Experiences
With the Insurgents.

The ships company of the transport
Senator got something more than
mere, transport duty out of their trip
to Manila. They saw the lombard
ment of the city, and to the extent
that anybody sees a battle they saw
the night fighting between the Span
iards and the American troops and
the final assault that carried the city.
The Senator, which was one of the
troop ships of the first expedition,
sailed from Manila August gath, and
arrived off this port last night. She
returned without stopping at Nagas
aki. because she carried coal enough
for the trip. She put in here because
the coal was in her hold and could not
be advantageously transferred to her
bunkers at sea. She will remain here
long enough, probably four days, to
shift her coal and perhaps take on
some more as ballast, give her ma
chinery an overhauling and clean her
boilers. which have become very dir
ty. While in the China Sea she en-
countered a typhoon, probably the
one that overlook the Zealandia, and
lay to for thirty-two hours. She had
most of the railing and everything
movable on her forward deck torn
away, but suffered little serious dam
age.
The Senator brings a number of
non-commissioned officers and privates
from the Eighteenth and Twenty
third infantry and the Third artillery,
whose term of enlistment had expired,
though none of them left the ranks
until after the capture of Manila.
The description of the lombard
ment of the city by the Raleigh, Pc
trel, Olympia and the captured gun
boat Callao. given by some of the
men who witnessed it from the deck
of the Senator, five miles distant, is
very vivid. 1t did not last long but
the boom and crack of ordnance, and
the shot and shell whistling in their
parabolc courses is described as ma
iestic and awe-inspiring.
The Callao, the captured Spanish
gunboat, was used, because being of
light draft. she could engage at clos
er range. 1t was her guns that did
the most damage.
OF the assault by the troops little
could be seen except the line of smoke
city Before the assault on the city
there We're engagements between the
| Spanish garrison and the investing ar
my nearly every night especially
| when it rained, the flashes of light
| from the Springfelds and Krag-Jor-
gensens and the few field pieces the
| Americans had telling when the con-
| flict was on.
rri, 4,
that is interesting and new about the
| operations there. The worst feature
of their work was in the trenches.
| These were always full of water and
it rained during every twenty-four
hours, rained hard and long. The reg
iments in the trenches were changed
| every twenty-four hours. So that
when a man was in the trench he was
there for a whole day, carrying In his
haversack provisions for the day
The soldiers have a very poor opin-
ion of the insurgents. One of the
first duties of the California regiment
was to clear out the hospitals at Ca
vite. Some of them had been captur-
ed by the insurgents who simply cut
the throats of the wounded Spaniards,
and left the bodies to rot.
| Every insurgent carries big knife
and his ambition is to cut a throat
with it. When Manila was captured
the insurgents were not allowed to
| enter until the American troops were
in possession and in a position to give
| protection. Then the insurgents were
all disarmed before they were allow.
ed to enter. This made them very
angry and Aguinaldo, it is said, was
put under guard for day or two
The insurgents had planned to rot
and pillage the city beforehand, each
man picking out the particular house
or store he wanted for his own prize
and the particular throat he wanted
to cut.
When the Senator left Manila the
blockade was just beng raised. The
Olympia was made the custom house
and the customs system was just be
| inU orUauize1