The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-08
CAPITAL OF THE LADRONES
4 ACCOUNT OF ITS BLOODLESS cAp-
 TURF BY AMERICANS.

Lieut.. Reuther, Executive Officer of the
 Charleston, Given 16O Men to Com.
 mence the Operations-Tricls of the
 Governor Outwitted by the Quick
 Action of the Lieutenant-spantsh
 Officials Taken Prisoners.
 Wheeling, w. Va, Aug. 7.-The de- tails of the bloodless capture of the principal of the Ladrone islands reach- ed Wheeling to-day in letter to Hon. Augustus Pollak from the naval officer who figured in the leading role of the exploit, Lieutenant William Brauner Reuther, executive officer of the cruiser Charleston. The letter is as follows:
 Limited States Steamship Charleston at sea and 1000 miles from Manila, June "A, 1S9S.-We have just carried out our orders to capture the Spanish authors ties at the capital of the Ladrone isl- ands, Agana. l was selected by the captain to undertake this job and was gwen l60 men to land with for a start CT. went ashore to have talk with the governor about their affairs and the result was that did not lose even single man. The matter was all set tied in one day and we are carrying with us fifty-four soldiers (Spanish) and six officers, besides lot of Mauser rifles and nearly ten thousand rounds of ammunition. I had the whole to handle ana dtH rt,,sotrfxv TN tain's instructions were to wait a half hour for his answer to our ultimatum, then use my troops. I waited, and in just twenty-nine minutes the governor handed me over his sealed reply ad- dressed to the captain of our ship out in the harbor about four or five miles off.
 Il knew this was sealed with the sole object of gaining time and hence broke the seal, read the contents, the governor protesting and saying that was letter for my captain. I replied: I represent him here. You are now my prisoners, senors, and will have to come on board ship with me-. They protest ed and pleaded and finally the gover- nor said: You came on shore to talk over matters, and you make us prison- CTS instead I replied: I came on shore to hand you a letter and to get your reply; in this reply, now in my hand, you agree to surrender all under your Jurisdiction. If this means any thing at all, 1t means that you will ac- cede to my demands may deem proper to make. You will at once write an or- der to your military man at Agania (the capitaD directing him to deliver at this place at 4 D. m. Ct was 10:30 a. m. June 2D, all ammunition and flags on the island, each soldier to bring his own. rifle and ammunition, and all the sol- diers, native and Spanish, with their officers, must witness this.'
 They protested and demurred say- ing there was not time enough to do it, but said it must be done. The letter was written and sent. took all the of- ficers with me in a boat and went ashore again at 4 o'clock and rounded in the whole outfit. At p. m. when disarmed 108 men and two officers, I had forty-six men and three officers with me. The keynote of the whole business was my breaking the seal of that letter and acting at once. They had not time to delay or prepare any treacherous tricks and got ''the drup'' on the whole outfit, as they say out west.
 "The native troops I released and ale lowed to return to their homes unre- stricted they had manifested great joy. in being relieved from Spanish rule While it was harsh 1t was war. Twenty-four hours would have-yes, believe, even four hours, with a leader, such as the governor was, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish army, given them a chance to hide along the road at Agania and at intervals in the dense tropical foliage they could have almost annihilated any force we could land. The approaches to the landing over shallow coral reefs would have made landing without terrible loss of life almost an impossibility-but all is well that ends well.
 "We have increased by conquest the population of the United States by nearly 12,O00 people. The capital has a population of 6,000 population. This harbor, in which we were, is beautiful, easy of access, plenty of deep water admitting of the presence of a large number of vessels at the same time and is an ideal place for coaling stations If our government decides to hold the Philippines, it would then come in we'll; San Francisco to Honolulu 2,100 miles, Honolulu to Island of Guam $500, and thence to Manila, 1,600 miles. With a. chain of supply stations like this, we could send troops the whole year round, if necessary, and any vessel with steaming capacity of $500 miles could reach a base of supplies. The captain in extending to me his congratulations remarked: You'll never as long as you live have another experience such as this. I congratulate you on your york;"